After theory

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

the Next Big Statement From One Of Our Foremost Radical Intellectuals, Announcing The End Of The Postmodern Era-and The Start Of The Next Big Way To Think About The World We Face Today.

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contending That We Are Living In The Aftermath Of High Theory, Eagleton, The Author Of The Highly Popular And Groundbreaking Literary Theory: An Introduction, Bemoans The Current State Of Cultural Studies, Wryly Noting That While Students Once Wrote Uncritical, Reverential Essays On Flaubert Nowadays They Write Uncritical, Reverential Essays On Friends. Marxism, Hermeneutics, And Semiotics Are No Longer Sexy Academic Topics, He Warns. They Have, Instead, Yielded To A Fascination With Sex. Students Now Huddle Diligently In Libraries, At Work On Sensationalist Subjects Like Vampirism, Eye-gouging, Cyborgs, And Porno Movies. The Democratic Impetus Behind Much Cultural Study-that Because They Reflect The Everyday Life Of Common People, Survivor And Jay-z Are As Worthy Of Serious Study As Sophocles And Joyce-seems Appealing, But The Marxist Eagleton Cannot Reconcile Studying The History Of Pubic Hair While Half The World's Population Lacks Adequate Sanitation And Survives On Less Than Two Dollars A Day. As Always, Eagleton Is Witty And Convincing In His Argument That Theory Should Be Addressing More Important Issues In A Post-9/11 World Politically Dominated By A High-handed U.s. Administration And Terrorist Threats. In The End, However, His Study Offers Surprisingly Little Beyond Standard Bush-bashing And Repetitive Anticapitalist Rants. Alas, What Could Have Been Great Cultural Criticism With Broad Appeal Falls Short.-william D. Walsh, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"For anyone forced to wrestle with the likes of Derrida, Barthes, and Kristeva during their college days, Terry Eagleton needs no introduction. His primer on literary theory was (and remains) an indispensable guide to the postmodern era in the humanities. Now he argues that the age of cultural theory has come to a close - and looks at what should follow. Tracing the rise and fall of postmodern ideas from the 1960s through the 1990s, Eagleton explores the factors that brought them to the forefront, and with characteristic wit, offers a candid assessment of the resultant gains and losses." "As After Theory argues, rather than shy away from big questions and grand narratives, today's global political situation demands we pay attention to a range of topics that have largely gone ignored by the academy and public alike - from fundamentalism to objectivity, religion to ethics, being to non-being."--Jacket. The golden age of cultural theory (the product of a decade and a half, from 1965 to 1980) is long past. We are living now in its aftermath, in an age which, having grown rich in the insights of thinkers like Althusser, Barthes and Derrida, has also moved beyond them. What kind of new, fresh thinking does this new era demand? Eagleton concludes that cultural theory must start thinking ambitiously again - not so that it can hand the West its legitimation, but so that it can seek to make sense of the grand narratives in which it is now embroiled. Contents 7 Prefatory note 9 1 The Politics of Amnesia 11 2 The Rise and Fall of Theory 33 3 The Path to Postmodernism 51 4 Losses and Gains 84 5 Truth, Virtue and Objectivity 113 6 Morality 150 7 Revolution, Foundations and Fundamentalists 184 8 Death, Evil and Non-being 218 Postscript 233 Index 239 Terry Eagleton. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.