Postmodernism

Jameson's chapter starts off by basically arguing for how he sees "postmodernism" and it's place in history. He suggests that it be thought of as a period of "cultural dominance" where the basic features of postmodernism were widespread, and not as simply the "end of modernism" or a style devient of it. His main support for this is the way society accepted and embraced postmodernism, while modernism was at it's time not accepted or well liked at all. Jameson also mentions a point that he says is just a preview for a later chapter, but it seemed relevent anyway. He says that any position on postmodernism (and by this I assumed he meant how you see it's place in society) is also a political "stance" on mulinational capitalism. He also reminds us that postmodernism is largely due to the industrialization and "mass production" of american society, and that this would not have been possible if America hd not been so politically and militarily powerful.

Question 1: I was reading on page 2, "The postmodernisms have, in fact, been fascinated precisely by.....or fantasy novel: materials they no longer simply "quote" as a Joyce or a Mahler might have done, but incorporte into their very substance" and I was confused what/who the "they" refers to. I think the sentence meant that instead of simply witnessing the consumer socitey, the artists used these new characteristics as part of their art. But then I also thought that maybe it meantinstead of "quoteing" this characteristic of society, it's been overwhelmed by it and is no longer outside, but rather nothing but simply a product. If I knew who Joyce or Mahler were and what they were known for, this would have helped...

Question 2: My second problem while reading was that i don't know much about Marx or Freud or the other great thinkers of decades past. Freud is mentioned a few times in ways equivalent to saying "as freud would have said, '.......', except that he doesn't say how freud would have evaluated the situation, Jameson just assumes we know. Marx is mentioned in the same way, and even quoted but I can't understand the significance of the quote. Jameson even says the quote was in a different context without giving us that contxt, and so how can I possibly figure out why he put that quote there?