ABSTRACT
Frederic Jameson’s system might seem to be vulnerable to a charge of looseness or vagueness, too, insofar as it invokes the notion of a “collective consciousness” which, in its repression of history, might appear to have the mythopoeic overtones of some inverted Jungianism. Jameson’s use of the standard term “contradiction” is not much help, especially as it traces to Marx’s own borrowing from Hegel. The collective repression of the historical nightmare is a fact so massive, then, so powerful and all inclusive, that Jameson can feel justified in founding upon it a system of literary interpretation that is a theory of history. The point is a crucial one for Jameson’s entire system, since it involves the claim that what Levi-Strauss is doing so far is purely immanent analysis, describing the Caduveo decorations in their own formal or visual terms as pattern only.
