After theory

"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. Read more... 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. non.fiction,philosophy "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."--BOOK 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. Today the barriers between high and low culture have crumbled, but, as Terry Eagleton's book asks: does this mean our obsession with "culture" has overtaken everything else? Can we still be politically engaged in today's freewheeling, postmodern era? How is it possible to justify studying "Friends" when half the world's population survives on less than two dollars a day? What kind of fresh thinking does today's urgent global situation demand? The politics of amnesia -- The rise and fall of theory -- The path to postmodernism -- Losses and gains -- Truth, virtue and objectivity -- Morality -- Revolution, foundations and fundamentalists -- Death, evil and non-being.