True Materialism

Jensen Suther received his PhD from Yale University and is currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.

"Fearlessly reclaiming a humanist and Hegelian Marx, Jensen Suther's exhilarating book reactivates the concept of 'bio-aesthetics' for literary criticism today. Concepts and practices we have grown used to seeing as opposites--embodiment and reason, historical materialism and the autonomy of artworks--are subsequently re-thought together in politically exciting ways. This is an almost endlessly rich and rewarding text." --Sianne Ngai, University of Chicago "In his brilliant and spectacular debut, Jensen Suther explores how some of the greatest modernist artworks are not merely hostages to capitalism or refuges from its depredations. They dramatize and even take part in our embattled attempt to confer narrative unity on our lives." --Samuel Moyn, Yale University "This is a deeply intelligent and strikingly original book. The erudition on which it is based is world-class, extremely impressive, and the position defended is bold, fresh, and bound to attract a great deal of attention." --Robert Pippin, University of Chicago "In stunningly argued text, Suther claims that it is partly through the work of art that we collectively form ourselves as a certain kind of historical community. The unlikely source of Suther's compelling philosophy of art and literature is a tour de force reconstruction of Hegelian-Marxism from a revised Aristotelian reading of Hegel's Logic. This is an aesthetic theory for our time." --J.M. Bernstein, New School for Social Research