After Theory

Front Cover
Basic Books, Dec 24, 2003 - Literary Collections - 240 pages
For anyone forced to wrestle with the likes of Derrida and Foucault during their college days, Terry Eagleton needs no introduction. His clear and accessible primer on literary theory was (and is) an indispensable guide to the post-modern era in the humanities. Now Eagleton argues that the golden age of cultural theory has ended, and with characteristic wit and verve, he traces its rise and fall from structuralism to post-colonial studies and beyond. In a new era of globalization and terrorism, Eagleton warns, the bundle of ideas known as post-modernism is essentially toothless.In this eloquent synthesis of a lifetime of learning, Eagleton challenges contemporary intellectuals to engage with a range of vital topics-love, evil, death, morality, religion, and revolution-that they've ignored over the past thirty years. Lively and provocative, Eagleton's latest will engage readers inside and outside the academy who are eager for a more holistic and humane way of "reading" the world."A rare opportunity to enjoy the art of cultural and social diagnosis at its purest! Eagleton offers a unique combination of theoretical stringency and acerbic common-sense witticism, of critical historical reflection and the ability to ask the 'big' metaphysical questions."-Slavoj Zizek

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Contents

The Rise and Fall of Theory
23
The Path to Postmodernism
41
Losses and Gains
74
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Terry Eagleton is Professor of Cultural Theory at Manchester University. He is the author of Literary Theory, several plays, a trilogy on Irish culture, the screenplay for Derek Jarman's film Wittgenstein, and many other books. He is also a frequent contributor to Harper's, The Nation, and the New York Review of Books.

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