Fredric Jameson to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Duke University's Fredric Jameson will receive the sixth Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement from the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Jameson, the William A. Lane Jr. Professor of Comparative Literature and professor of Romance studies, will receive the award Jan. 7 in Seattle during the association's annual convention.

"A lifetime achievement award is a little alarming," said Jameson, who came to Duke in 1985. "But on the other hand, it's very nice to have the recognition."

For several decades, Jameson has won acclaim for his work as a cultural theorist and literary critic, in particular for his work on Marxism.  His work has been broad and varied, writing on topics ranging from film to architecture, painting and science fiction.

His works have been translated into 11 languages including Catalan and Serbian-Croatian, noted Rey Chow, interim chair of Duke's Program in Literature, which Jameson kick-started in the mid-80s as its first director.

"One would be hard put to find a humanities scholar who is more widely visible and more frequently cited across the disciplines, and who has sustained national and international critical attention for a more extended period of time than Fred Jameson," Chow said. "While many scholars of his stature and seniority would have rested comfortably on their laurels, Jameson continues to break new ground with exemplary erudition, imagination and productivity. Every new book by him constitutes an intellectual event."

Jameson's previous honors from the MLA include the William Riley Parker Prize in 1971 and the James Russell Lowell Prize in 1990.

In 2008, he received the Holberg International Memorial Prize, given annually for outstanding scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology.

Jameson received his Ph.D from Yale University and has taught at Harvard, UC-San Diego, Yale and the UC-Santa Cruz. He has published more than 20 books and dozens of articles.