Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.

Quantity:

More Buying Choices

40 used & new from $14.29

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Tell the Publisher! I�d like to read this book on Kindle Don�t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

The Illusions of Postmodernism (Paperback)

by Terry Eagleton (Author) "Imagine a radical movement which had suffered an emphatic defeat..." (more)
Key Phrases: Jacques Derrida, United States, David Hume (more...)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

List Price:	$31.95
Price:	$28.22 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save:	$3.73 (12%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In stock on July 20, 2009.
Order it now.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

24 new from $23.83 16 used from $14.29

Also Available in:	List Price:	Our Price:	Other Offers:
Hardcover			4 used & new from $76.49

Frequently Bought Together

Price For All Three: $48.60

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

This item: The Illusions of Postmodernism by Terry Eagleton
In stock on July 20, 2009.
Order it now.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
After Theory by Terry Eagleton
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Terry Eagleton
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Terry Eagleton

4.2 out of 5 stars (8) $8.54

Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (The Terry Lectures Series)

by Terry Eagleton

2.9 out of 5 stars (17) $16.50

Jesus Christ: The Gospels (Revolutions)

by Terry Eagleton

4.0 out of 5 stars (2) $10.17

How to Read a Poem

by Terry Eagleton

4.3 out of 5 stars (3) $17.90

Ideology: An Introduction, New Edition

by Terry Eagleton

$15.61

› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Eagleton shows his firm grasp of political tactics and knowledge of history. It is exceptional" Steven Donovan

Product Description
In this brilliant new critique, Terry Eagleton explores the origins and emergence of postmodernism, revealing its ambivalences and contradictions. His primary concern is less with the more intricate formulations of postmodern philosophy than with the culture or milieu of postmodernism as a whole. Above all, he speaks to a particular kind of student, or consumer, of popular "brands" of postmodern thought.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (December 31, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0631203230
ISBN-13: 978-0631203230
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,146 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#9 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Postmodernism
#30 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory > Semiotics
#55 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Reference

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Imagine a radical movement which had suffered an emphatic defeat. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jacques Derrida, United States, David Hume, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Roland Barthes

New!
Concordance | Text Stats

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 22 books:

Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (Comedia) by Dave Morley in Back Matter
Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens on page 110
What Is Neostructuralism? (Theory and History of Literature) by Manfred Frank in Back Matter
Marxism and Christianity by Denys Turner in Back Matter
Human Rights: Its Culture and Moral Confusions by Howard Taylor in Back Matter

See all 22 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

After Poststructuralism by Colin Davis on 4 pages
Modernism, Narrative and Humanism by Paul Sheehan in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Modern Literary Theory: A Reader by the late Philip Rice in Front Matter, page 328, and page 341
After Poststructuralism: Reading, Stories and Theory by Colin Davis on page 68, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
The Eagleton Reader (Blackwell Readers) by Stephen Regan in Front Matter, page 269, and Back Matter

See all 100 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	55% buy the item featured on this page: The Illusions of Postmodernism 3.8 out of 5 stars (12) $28.22
	21% buy Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (The Terry Lectures Series) 2.9 out of 5 stars (17) $16.50
	13% buy After Theory 3.2 out of 5 stars (14) $11.84
	8% buy The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) 4.2 out of 5 stars (8) $8.54

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

philosophy(2)

multiculturalis m(1)

postmodernism(1)

relativism(1)

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly LEFTIST critique of PoMo, July 14, 2001

By	John Ronald (Sugar Land, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me begin by confessing a bias--I positively love Terry Eagleton as a critic and writer. His _Intro to Literary Theory_ is amazingly lucid and influenced me a great deal.

I was first exposed to PoMo while working on an MA in German Studies @ Rice University. It was a subject I had never before confronted in my undergrad years. I walked into my first Intro to PoMo class a naive optimist and humanist and naive beliver in the Enlightenment tradition. Needless to say I was thrown for a heavy loop...PoMo utterly overwhelmed me, scrambled my brains, and in no small measure derailed my MA thesis for at least a year, trying to wrap my mind around this difficult subject. I felt a gut-level dislike of J.F. Lyotard and an immediate affinity for J. Habermas. Among PoMo writers, I felt most attracted to F. Jameson, who, of whom, of course, we got the least coverage in my class.

In many ways, Eagleton picks up where Jameson leaves off. Both are conscientious Marxist theorists who offer a welcome critque of PoMo from a Leftist perspective that I can embrace as opposed to the usual gamut of Right-Wing/Conservative PoMo bashing ala Alan Bloom, et. al. that I only partially can stomach and tends to leave me cold. In defense of PoMo's positive aspects, I highly recommend the writings of US Professors Michael Berube and Cary Nelson.

But Eagleton is a mint...a unabashed socialist from Britain, a true cultural heir of Orwell, I think...He and fellow Briton Christopher Norris both offer solid, fair critques of PoMo free of Rightist blather.

Eagleton gives the best of PoMo its due, but also takes it to task time and time again, often quite humorously with intellectual irony.

I recall reading _Teach Yourself Postmodernism_ and enjoying its solid critques of the failings of (classical) Modernism, but then it wandered off into advanced PoMo and I found myself dismayed, watching my sympthies dry up and evaporate as the elucidation of PoMo drifted from Modernist critque to positive assertions about PoMo that struck me as so wrong-headed. Eagleton points out in detail and says more eloquently than I could muster, just what is "wrong w/ PoMo"... (Norris does an equally fine job, too, i might add).

Eagleton in a number of ways reminds me of Noam Chomsky's response to PoMo. But whereas Chomsky is utterly dismissive of PoMo, Eagleton at least engages it forwardly, gives it a fair hearing.

Anyhow...This latest book by Terry Eagleton, it has much to recommend it. Enjoy!

-JJR

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant critique, August 16, 2004

By	Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

In his attempt to find a working definition, Eagleton makes a distinction between postmodernism and postmodernity. For him, postmodernism is a style of culture reflecting something of the epochal changes during the historical phase of postmodernity. In this book he explores the culture and milieu of postmodernist philosophy as a whole and does not much discuss particular works of art or specific theorists. Eagleton's approach is to look at what a student today might believe about postmodernism and to prove that most of that is false. Although his view is mainly negative, he judges both postmodernism's strengths and its failures from a broadly socialist political and theoretical perspective.

The book draws extensively on the author's writings in the London Review Of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Monthly Review, Textual Practice and Socialist Register and is divided into the chapters Beginnings, Ambivalences, Histories, Subjects, Fallacies and Contradictions. Eagleton's sense of irony and gift of satire ensure an engaging text, especially when he comes up with turns of phrase like: " ... from Lyotard to leotards ...". He also touches on subjects are disparate as Madonna, graphic novels and gothic architecture, which enliven the text.

Eagleton considers the politics of postmodernism to have been both enrichment and evasion. For all its supposed openness, Pomo can be just as censorious and exclusivist as the orthodoxies it opposes. He explains that it is a type of orthodox heterodoxy that needs its straw men in order to stay in business. In its attempt to cut the ground from under its opponents' feet, Pomo unavoidably pulls the rug from under its own, the author observes. He explores pomo's hatred of essentialism (the specific "whatness" of a thing) and concludes that if enlightenment universalism is exclusivist in practice, ethnic particularism can be exclusivist in both practice and theory.

Eagleton concludes that pomo is not just some theoretical mistake. It is the ideology of a particular historical epoch in the West when reviled and humiliated groups discovered something of their history and selfhood. But its inherent failings are its cultural relativism, moral conventionalism, cynicism, localism and lack of any adequate theory of political agency. As such, he observes that postmodernism cannot confront ideologies like fascism.

In simple parlance, pomo thought with its relativism denies distinctions between right and wrong or good and evil, whilst claiming that everything is just a power game and we are all victims. It in fact provides a fertile breeding ground for fascism, something that Eagleton is perhaps too polite to spell out. But his book has broadened my perspective on this jargon-jaded phenomenon, all thanks to his elegant prose and intellectual acuity. The book concludes with notes and an index. I also recommend Intellectual Impostures (Fashionable Nonsense) by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, an investigation of how postmodernist theorists twist and abuse the language of the natural sciences.

Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault

Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas

The Anti-Chomsky Reader

Indoctrination U:The Left's War Against Academic Freedom

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

46 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite Samson, the Temple Stands, September 1, 2003

By	Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This is not a scholarly work (few footnotes), but it does make scholarly demands.The reader needs to know a lot about postmodernism and Marxism before picking it up , because Eagleton doesn't fill in the background. In short, the book does not serve as a primer. Still, pomo is a big subject and this is a slender volume, so a lot gets left out. Individual thinkers like Derrida, Kristeva, Lyotard and the usual suspects, are replaced by a popular view or what Eagleton calls the "sensibility of postmodernism as a whole." (p.viii). This amounts to a corporate image, a synthesis of the movement as a whole -- but is the synthesis really a straw man, a travesty of the real thing? On that, the reader will have to judge for herself; in any case fidelity to the originators is really not the point. Eagleton is not interested in what these thinkers precisely think or say. Instead, he's interested in what people believe pomo says, and just as importantly, in the kind of society that popularizes a pomo sensibility. His aim, therefore, is more about society and politics than which thinker said what and when. This is consistent with his Marxism, which is not much interested in where an idea comes from, but instead how it affects where society is going.

But, given the eclipse of international socialism, who cares what Marx or socialists say. Even postmodernism, Marxism's quandom successor, celebrates the god of the free market; so who cares. Well, as Eagleton points out, capitalism triumphant is an exploitative mess that is not likely (not certainly) to get better; thus, there remains a clear need for principles embracing collective solutions to collective problems. Still and all, pomo earned its reputation by taking apart those grand ideas that Enlightenment thinkers, including Marx, needed for traction -- concepts such as universals, reason, humanism, et. al. The core of the book are the chapters where Eagleton shows how these modernist pillars still hold together despite attacks from pomo's deconstruction wing. How successfully he does this is again up to the reader to decide. In my view, he's pretty effective, especially when showing up pomo's political sterility. At times, however, I wasn't sure whether he was arguing that such pivotal concepts as universals and essences are really real or merely indispensible. Politically, I suppose the question comes to the same thing. Anyhow, this is a worthwhile book for those who are looking for a learned Marxist reply to the postmodern challenge and are willing to put up with the vagaries of an allusive style.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 12 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A valid and persuasive discussion
Professor Eagleton takes no prisoners in this thorough albeit short critique on the theories of postmodernism. Read more

Published on April 8, 2006 by C. Middleton

1.0 out of 5 stars You know...
Terry Eagleton has later admitted that its a book based on rumors and on actual readings of the philosophers mentioned...i guess that says it all.

Published on February 27, 2006 by Lars S

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book on POSTMODERNISM!
Despite "a reader's" review of the work below, Eagleton is, as usual, clear and convincing in his argument. Read more

Published on May 18, 2005 by Bill

1.0 out of 5 stars Blathering on about intellectual nonsense
Intellectual garbage on the subject of intellectual garbage.

Published on February 15, 2004 by Michael J. Butler

5.0 out of 5 stars Eagleton hits a homerun
Postmodernism is an incredibly fuzzy concept. Eagleton is able to sharpen it and make it crystal clear. Read more

Published on April 1, 1998 by Jay Raskin (jraskin@atlantic.net)

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the most important critique of PoMo available!
Eagleton debunks some of the central tenets of PoMo thinking in order to re-claim rationality, enlightened critique, the human subject, history and epistemology for left-wing... Read more

Published on November 7, 1997

5.0 out of 5 stars A new viewpoint of research of postmodernism
Some people think of postmodernism as intruing truth of capitalism,but according to the standpoint of vast majority of people,we have to respect their opinions. Read more

Published on September 1, 1997

4.0 out of 5 stars A postmodern critique of postmodernism that works. Almost.
Eagleton offers a political and theoretical critique of postmodernism (ix), from a position he considers pluralist, "believing in postmodern fashion that there are different... Read more

Published on August 2, 1997

1.0 out of 5 stars An amazingly shallow book
With his elaborate language T E is amazingly shallow, when it comes to critizing postmodernist thought. Read more

Published on August 1, 1997

› See all 12 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; }

Customer Discussions

Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (0 discussions)

	Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
	No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

[Cancel]

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
philosophy What does it take for a Proposition/Premise to be True...	24	35 minutes ago
health Obama's health care plan will destroy alternative medicine	476	37 minutes ago
health Michael Goldfied is a troll that is not a Phd or licensed professional in anything he discusses. All his responses are pure crap wrote to stroke his own agenda and ego. If you're tired of it .. sign here.	141	58 minutes ago
health What do you think of animal testing?	129	1 hour ago
philosophy A Zoroastrian response to Tiantai	8	5 hours ago
textbook Textbooks for Kindle DX?	40	3 days ago
textbook Does anyone use Discovering Geometry: An Investigative Approach?	5	3 days ago

The Philosophy community

Latest activity 38 minutes ago

8,611 customers have contributed 14,968 products, 310 discussions and more...

› Explore the community

The Postmodernism community

Latest activity 3 hours ago

721 customers have contributed 539 products, 65 lists & guides and more...

› Explore the community

The Health community

Latest activity 40 minutes ago

12,900 customers have contributed 9,604 products, 543 discussions and more...

› Explore the community

Explore more

› See all Customer Communities

› Your communities

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.

› See featured Amapedia.com articles

Listmania!

Rationalist's Required Reading List - Part 1: A list by T. Fuller Dean "Dr. Jazz"
Sociological Postmodernism: A list by Ben Lamb
For anti-Postmodernism leftists: A list by EDUARDO ENRIQUEZ

Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...

know about My Next 50 Books project: A guide by Robert Moore
resist Postmodern indoctrination?: A guide by happy review warrior
Restructure the Left: A guide by audiolipbalm "audiolipbalm"

Create a guide

Look for Similar Items by Category

Books > Health, Mind & Body > Mental Health
Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Reference
Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory > Semiotics
Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Postmodernism
Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > Literary Theory
Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > History & Surveys
Books > New & Used Textbooks > Social Sciences > Psychology
Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > History & Surveys
Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Modern
Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences

Work and Roll with DEWALT

While supplies last, enjoy special pricing on the DEWALT work site radio. Power it and you'll be rockin' and chargin' your way through a hard day of work.

›Shop more chargers and radios