Toril Moi in the LRB:
I first met Fredric Jameson more than forty years ago, at one of the sociology of literature conferences at Essex University in the early 1980s. I can’t remember which one, but I know that in July 1982 I gave a talk called ‘Sexual/Textual Politics’. Was Fred there that year? I had recently completed a PhD at Bergen, a university few in England had heard of, and was trying to earn a living by translating novels into Norwegian and giving tutorials in French literature at Oxford. I don’t think Fred noticed me at all, and I don’t think he had any reason to, except that my partner at the time was Terry Eagleton. His teacher was Raymond Williams and I remember being present at what was in some small way a historic event: the only time (I think) Terry, Fred and Raymond Williams were in the same room together. It was at Jesus College, Cambridge, where Williams was a fellow. But that’s as much as I can recall. What did the great men say to one another? I have no idea. All I remember is a scenario worthy of a play: three eloquent male Marxists and a silent feminist together in a room in a Cambridge college.
Time moved on, and so did I. I published some books and finally got a job, at my alma mater. Then Fred intervened in my life: he invited me to come to Duke as a visiting professor in the autumn of 1987. I accepted, and made my first trip to a Southern tobacco town I had never heard of.
More here.
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