Customer Reviews

Literary Theory: an Introduction

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I have to answer "a reader" from Los Angeles who wrote of the book's (in)completeness. "Literary Theory" was published in 1983 and so recent movements in theory are left out due to the failure of modern science to yet render humankind a time machine. I wonder if "a reader" even made it to the copyright page! As a result of its publication date, New Historicism, which came of age under Greenblatt's guidance in the mid 80s and Queer Theory, which found its published voice in the early 90s, are omitted. Both are discussed in the "Afterward" of the 2nd edition as important movements since the book's publication. This critique is as valid as decrying Theodor Adorno for disregarding the Internet in his writings on the Culture Industry from the early 70s and before. The same is true for Post-colonialism, which was too immature in the early 80s to give an account of, but which Eagleton praises in the "Afterward" and many other places as one of the most important movements in theoretical discourse.

Regarding the comment that "Eagleton for some reason wants to stay far away from gays, women, and people of color!" nothing could be more naive. As for the "people of color," Eagleton would not write about an African-American theory since he is Irish/English and not overly concerned with the regional theories of the United States (just as the US critics wouldn't spend much time on Irish/English ethnic theory). Overall, the purpose of the book is to review continental philosophy & theory, and its offspring in America and Britain. It could be labeled a Eurocentric work, but the author is pretty open about its purpose as a guide for students of English.

Finally, the absence of feminist scholarship in the work is the most absurd claim that "a reader" from LA makes. Eagleton clearly states that, "there are feminist theories which are more important than any of the theories here....One reason why I have not an account of feminist literary theory is that I believe such a move might encourage the reader to make what the philosophers call a 'category mistake'" In other words, Feminism (and Marxism) are not separate categories from theory, but are intertwined within all of theory. Despite his claim that feminism is absent from the book, Eagleton discusses it at length through its interactions with post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, semiotics, etc. Resultantly, Feminism is not relegated to one chapter as "a reader" from LA would like, but is everywhere in the book.

I must conclude then that "a reader" did not read the book, only its table of contents. I wonder: does he do this with every book that he comes across?

...who would blame you? Still, the educated layperson who wants to bump their understanding of contemporary literary criticism up to a respectable cocktail party level probably can't do much better than Eagleton's slim, thoroughly accessible introduction to the subject. "Literary Theory" traces the history of literature as a subject of academic study from English Romanticism, through Saussure and semiotics, all the way to the fashionable heavy-hitters of postmodernism. Neither an acolyte nor a debunker, Eagleton gives each theory a clear explanation and a fair shake in crisp, jargon-free prose. He is up front about his own ideological slants (feminist, Marxist), and although the last of these can at times make him sound quaintly Cold War, at no point does he drop into didacticism. This is a book that truly lives up to its subtitle.

I just finished reading Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: an Introduction for the third time in 10 years, and was even more impressed than before. I agree to a large extent with the other reviewers on this thread who called Eagleton to task for his obvious biases. From the beginning of the book, however, Eagleton makes it clear that his is a biased history of modern literary theory. While he eventually slams most of the theories he presents for one reason or another, he also has the admirable ability to present each theory in a favorable light before saying what he thinks is wrong with it. Again and again I found myself won over by a theory only to have it torn apart, after which he would present the next theory and I would say "Ah! Now this is more like it" - at which time he would pull the rug out from under that one.



The important thing to keep in mind when studying any account of critical theory, including and especially this one, is to be critical. It would be as much of a mistake to take Eagleton's word as gospel as it would anyone else's. If you read this with what psychologist Charles Tart called an "open mind, discriminating mind," It's a fine overview of a dense and potentially hermetic field of study. Eagleton doesn't provide the final word on any of these theories, but I think this book is an excellent jumping-off point for further inquiry.

How anyone could read this book and come out thinking Terry Eagleton is an ivory-tower elitist is a mystery to me. And while he's undeniably a Marxist, he speaks English as though it were his first language. That's more than you can say for far too many literary theoreticians, Marxist or otherwise. For me, Eagleton's great strength is that he approaches literary theory as a process, an ongoing argument, rather than as a body revealed truth writ in stone. The virtue of this approach is that literary theory is, in fact, an ongoing argument. If you want the word from the mountain, this may not be the book for you; but if you genuinely want to acquaint yourself with the subject, it's a good place to start.

As a former sudent of philosophy, I did look forward to reading this book and then realized how rusty I was. If you need a text to get you started or refresh your failing memory regarding the major literary theories (and keeping in mind that this book focuses on continental philsophy and European history), then I would recommend taking the book one slow chapter at a time. This material is worth studying but is not easily digestible for the layperson. Still, all of it is important, especially the most contemporary chapters. I appreciated Eagleton's references to the major poets and writers (and yes, most of them were men) and the historical background he provided for every chapter. Again, it's not the easiest book to read, but certainly worthy. I especially liked the chapter The Rise of English. That was one of the most readable.

A blurb on the back cover of my copy of this book states that it is an excellent way to introduce the reader to the main trends in literary theory "in one day." I think that description is justified: the theories are covered in a lucid, readable style. It is also pointed out that Eagleton does not attempt an unbiased approach in this book. This, also, is true, and is not objectionable, until the last twenty pages or so. In these latter pages, Eagleton states he is not going to promulgate his own Marxist views on literature; but a careful examination of his end matter will reveal that he is arguing dialectically and materialistically, and dialectical materialism is, after all, Marxist. Eagleton has thus, to an extent, been intellectually dishonest with his reader. The only other major flaw is that he spends too little time on feminist literature. However, in terms of a good, general work on literary theory's essentials, this book is still quite adequate, and is refreshingly free of the English scholar's claustrophobic jargon which mars so much criticism these days.

Many of my fellow reviewers slam Eagleton for his Marxism, which they call a "bias," and then claim Eagleton is "simplistic." Calling someone's perspective a bias just because you don't agree with it is the epitome of simplistic. If you aren't filled with antipathy to Marxism, you will be deeply grateful to Eagleton, who has run the risk of being called simplistic and biased so he can take you on a refreshingly easy walk through some dauntingly abstract and complicated stuff, and give you an idea of why it might all matter. You don't have to be a Marxist to appreciate this.

Literary Theory: An Introduction is a dense crash-course in contemporary literary theory. The book begins with the chapter "What is literature?" Eagleton explores what literature is and is not, and finally posits literature is a subjective, fluid term, as wrapped in the ideologies of its time as its value and class systems. Then he examines seven literary theories and concludes with a theory of his own, though he strongly maintains that his assertion is no theory, but truth itself.

Eagleton makes the interesting case that English emerged in the mid-to-late nineteenth century to replace a waning religion: "As religion progressively ceases to provide the social `cement', affective values, and basic mythologies by which socially turbulent class-society can be welded together, `English' is constructed as a subject to carry this ideological burden from the Victorian period onwards". Due to a bourgeois fear that the lower class will revolt from a middle class bad example, Matthew Arnolds, a key figure of the time, suggests that, "State-established schools, by linking the middle class to `the best culture of their nation' (the bourgeois culture), will confer on them (the lower class) `a greatness and a noble spirit, which the tone of these classes is not of itself at present adequate to impart'." In this "humanizing" pursuit through the teaching of English, it was believed that, "Since literature, as we know, deals in universal human values rather than in such historical trivia as civil wars, the oppression of women or the dispossession of English peasantry, it could serve to place in cosmic perspective the petty demands of working people for decent living conditions or greater control over their own lives, and might even, with luck, come to render them oblivious of such issues in their high-minded contemplation of eternal truths and beauties." And thus English as an academic subject is born! One more interesting quote from the chapter "The Rise of English": "It is significant, then, that `English' as an academic subject was first institutionalized not in the Universities, but in the Mechanics' Institutes, working men's colleges and extension lecturing circuits."

There are seven contemporary literary theories covered in this book: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory, Structuralism, Semiotics, Post-Structuralism, andPsychoanalysis. With each literary theory, Eagleton discusses the major theorists involved, the historical impacts that shaped the theory, and the particulars of that theory.

Eagelton concludes in the final chapter with his own non-theory on Political Criticism. He argues that because literature is a fluid ideology, it is in essence political, meaning it reflects the way we organize our social life together, and the power-relations this organization involves. "Indeed literary theory is less an object of intellectual enquiry in its own right than a particular perspective in which to view the history of our times." Eagleton theorizes that if literature is an illusion, then so is literary theory: "It is an illusion first in the sense that literary theory...is really no more than a branch of social ideologies, utterly without any unity or identity which would adequately distinguish it from philosophy, linguistics, psychology, cultural and sociological thought; and secondly in the sense that the one hope it has of distinguishing itself--clinging to an object named literature--is misplaced. We must conclude, then, that this book is less an introduction than an obituary, and that we have ended by burying the object we sought to unearth."

What makes this book unique is Eagleton's hypothesis (literature and literary theory are an illusion) and the way he goes about supporting his theory. He begins by examining the subjectivity of literature's definition, then moves into the literary theories themselves, highlighting the historical/period ideologies that helped define these theories, and then makes the analogy that if literature is an ideology and ideology is inherently political, then literature is political. The book is also unique for Eagleton's biting wit and criticism, and the historical impact the book had on literary theory at the time of its publication (1983).

The greatest strengths of this book are Eagleton's passion for the subject, the deep analytical formula he constructs to prove his personal non-theory, and the lush history that surrounds it all. The greatest weakness: while this book has been hailed as an accessible introduction to literary theory, it is by no means easily accessible, but rather coated in academic language, overstatement, unnecessarily lengthy reasoning, etc. I am not a lazy reader and each 5 pages took roughly an hour to read.

Urgency rating:
-The urgency rating is quite variable dependent on the reader. If you have always been hoping for a glimpse into literary theory and have the hours to spend combing through, reflecting, ans digesting the material, then hurry! This is the book for you! If you have already studied literary theory and consider your dues paid in full, don't have much time to spare, or have the attention span of a fruit fly (me), then skip this one.

I walked away with a much greater historical knowledge of the rise of English as an academic subject, the subjective definition of literature, and a passable understanding of most of the theories discussed. Not bad for a Beginner!

This book has deservedly become something of a standard primer on "literary theory" for advanced undergraduates and graduate students alike. Eagleton's incisive, wry humor is never far from the surface of his text, and it certainly eases the process of studying an often hopelessly dry and abstract subject.

Be warned that there are a few sloppy typographical errors, even in the second edition: e.g., "out" for "our" on the very first page of the text and "what" for "want" on page eight. Eagleton's writing itself, though, is usually clear and brisk. His style, like his wit, helps to minimize the obscurity and onanistic jargon usually associated with contemporary theory.

A standard objection to this book is that it is somehow tainted by Eagleton's own Marxist leanings. Indeed, Eagleton argues both explicitly and implicitly for Marxist interpretation of literature and history throughout his book, but he is also candid about doing so, and any astute reader will notice and ignore, if he or she chooses, the ideological slant.

If you wish to gain a general overview of developments in literary theory during the past 100 years, you could do worse than to pick up Eagleton's clear and eminently readable book.

Usually, it is hard to find books about literary theory that give an easy point of view to nonacademic readers. Eagleton achieves a simple yet complete explanation of the main literary theories of 20th. century. Even though he sustains a MArxist point of view he is able to explain and recognize the most important achievements of each current. I think the best of his ideas is that we should take a position when we talk about literature. Excellent book for beginners