Terry Eagleton Overview

Terry Eagleton is one of the few contemporary literary critics who haven't bought into Postmodernism wholesale. At a time when the terminology of Deconstruction is promulgated enthusiastically (and meaninglessly) in academia, Eagleton roots himself firmly in traditional Marxism. He maintains a... [more]

Terry Eagleton is one of the few contemporary literary critics who haven't bought into Postmodernism wholesale. At a time when the terminology of Deconstruction is promulgated enthusiastically (and meaninglessly) in academia, Eagleton roots himself firmly in traditional Marxism. He maintains a careful critical distance from what he sees as a nuanced form of literary and political nihilism. This isn't to say that Eagleton shuns Postmodern ideas -- he's clearly up-to-date on his Foucault and his Derrida. But Eagleton approaches these theories with a specific political interest in mind. His intent is always to show how ideology functions in and through a literary text. That is, he seeks to articulate (as a good Marxist always does) the material and ideological conditions that give rise to art and how art in turn affects these conditions. In what may be his most important book, "The Ideology of the Aesthetic" (1990), Eagleton presents what he sees as the ideal relationship between art and politics. For him, an aesthetic work should function as a good society does: all the parts should come together in a harmonious whole, without this whole exercising a tyrannical hold on the organization and individuality of the parts. Aesthetic order thus derives from and participates in social order -- the two are inseparable. And the intersection between them always hinges on values that are as much aesthetic as they are political. Postmodernism, Eagleton claims, has been helpful in allowing marginalized voices to assert themselves, but has otherwise relinquished the capacity to make firm value judgments. As a result, both its aesthetics and its social order suffer. In "The Illusions of Postmodernism," he indicts the extreme form of relativism that characterizes Postmodern thought. When all things become equal, or at least equally plausible, they also become meaningless. Nihilism, Eagleton implies, is the ineluctable consequence. By maintaining what he admits is a "traditionalist" position, Eagleton escapes this lamentable outcome. He affirms the need for a hierarchical system of values. But don't get him wrong -- he's not one of those uptight traditionalists so intent on avoiding the word play of Postmodern criticism that his texts become unbearably boring. Eagleton's writing flashes with humor and wit. And his capacity to articulate all the quiddities of contemporary theory in quite comprehensible language is indeed admirable. Eagleton balances his Marxist sincerity with sufficient doses of irony to forge an uncommonly clear path through the murk of Postmodern theory. [show less]