Editing Terry Eagleton (section)

===''Literary Theory'' and ''After Theory''===
In ''[[Literary Theory: An Introduction]]'' (1983, revised 1996), Eagleton surveys the history of theoretical approaches to literature, from its beginnings with Matthew Arnold, through formalism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, to post-structuralism. In the process, he demonstrates what is the thesis of the book: that theory is necessarily political. Theory is always presented as if it is unstained by point of view and is neutral, but in fact it is impossible to avoid having a political perspective. Peter Barry has said of the book that it "greatly contributed to the 'consolidation' of literary theory and helped to establish it firmly on the undergraduate curriculum".<ref>Barry, Peter. ''Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory''. Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 273.</ref> Eagleton's approach to literary criticism is one firmly rooted in the Marxist tradition, though he has also incorporated techniques and ideas from more recent modes of thought as [[structuralism]], [[Jacques Lacan|Lacanian analysis]] and [[deconstruction]]. As his memoir ''The Gatekeeper'' recounts, Eagleton's Marxism has never been solely an academic pursuit. He was active in the [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|International Socialists]] (along with [[Christopher Hitchens]]) and then the [[Workers' Socialist League]] whilst in Oxford. He has been a regular contributor to the ''[[London Review of Books]]''.<ref>[https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/terry-eagleton LRB archive]. But only six contributions from 2014 to 2017.</ref>

''After Theory'' (2003) was written two decades later, after the end of the great period of High Theory&nbsp;– the cultural theory of Foucault, the postmodernists, Derrida, et al. Looking back, Eagleton evaluates its achievements and failures, and proposes new directions needing to be pursued. He considers that among the great achievements of Theory were the expansion of objects of study (to include gender, sexuality, popular culture, post-colonialism, etc.), and the wide-ranging self-reflective criticism of traditional assumptions. But in Eagleton's estimation there were also many serious mistakes, for instance: the assault on the normative and the insistence on the relativity of truth leaves us powerless to criticize oppression; the rejection of objectivity and (excessively) of all forms of essentialism bespeak an unrecognized idealism, or at least a blindness to our human materiality, ultimately born of an unconscious fear of death; and cultural studies has wrongly avoided consideration of ethics, which for Eagleton is inextricably tied to a proper politics. It is virtue and politics and how they may be realized, among other things, that Eagleton offers as new avenues needing to be explored by cultural studies. ''After Theory'' fleshes out this political aspect, tied to ethics, growing out of the fact that humans exist in neediness and dependency on others, their freedom bounded by the common fact of death.