Terry Eagleton Books

A volume incorporating much of the best of Wilde's The Critic As Artist; The Picture of Dorian Grey; The Soul of Man Under Socialism; Lady Windermere's Fan; The Importance of Being Ernest; The Ballad of Reading Gaol; The Harlot's House; The Sphinx; The Artist; The House of Judgment; A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over Educated.

A clear-sighted and entertaining defence of literary realism, and an account of its key practitioners Realist fiction is one of the most enduring artforms history has ever witnessed. By describing the intricate inner life of its characters, or widening its focus to set their experience in context, it can evoke the reader's sympathies as few other forms can. Yet it is also by and large a product of the middle classes: boldly individualist and fascinated by money, property, marriage, and inheritance. Can such realism survive in the postmodern age? Acclaimed critic Terry Eagleton explores realism's complex history, practice, and politics. Spanning several centuries, and including writers such as George Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, and Iris Murdoch, Eagleton offers a witty, entertaining defence of a form which offers both panoramic scope and individual nuance in an increasingly fragmented world.

A native Briton describes America and its citizens through his English eyes, humorously questioning their choices in bumper stickers, use of adjectives and superlatives, and their overall lack of appreciation for the teapot.

"The Ideology of the Aesthetic" presents a history & critique of the concept of the aesthetic throughout modern Western thought. As such, this is a critical survey of modern Western philosophy, focusing in particular on the complex relations between aesthetics, ethics & politics. Eagleton provides a brilliant & challenging introduction to these concerns, as characterized in the work of Kant, Schiller, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Lukacs, Adorno, Habermas & others. Wide in span, as well as morally & politically committed, this is his major work to date. It forms both an original enquiry & an exemplary introduction.

A renowned literary theorist reconsiders previous stances and offers his latest thinking on the nature of literature and literary study

Terry Eagleton looks back across sixty years to an extraordinary critical milieu that transformed the study of literature

Unravels the many different definitions of ideology, explores the history of the concept from the Enlightenment to postmodernism, and interprets the works of major philosophers.

"Far and away the best short introduction to Marxist criticism (both history and problems) which I have seen."--Fredric R. Jameson "Terry Eagleton is that rare bird among literary critics--a real writer."--Colin McCabe, The Guardian

Terry Eagleton's Tragedy provides a major critical and analytical account of the concept of 'tragedy' from its origins in the Ancient world right down to the twenty-first century.A major new intellectual endeavour from one of the world's finest, and most controversial, cultural theorists.Provides an analytical account of the concept of 'tragedy' from its origins in the ancient world to the present day.Explores the idea of the 'tragic' across all genres of writing, as well as in philosophy, politics, religion and psychology, and throughout western culture.Considers the psychological, religious and socio-political implications and consequences of our fascination with the tragic.

This book gives an overview of a variety of approaches to literary criticism that have developed in the twentieth century, including phenomenological, structuralist, semiotics and psychoanalysis

Derek Jarman's film "Wittgenstein" articulates the themes of this major 20th-century philosopher. Channel 4 television commissioned literary critic Terry Eagleton to write a television play which was eventually filmed by Derek Jarman. This illustrated book includes both the original screenplay & Jarman's very different shooting script. It also contains reflections on Wittgenstein, film & the problems of biography by both Derek Jarman & Terry Eagleton. Terry Eagleton is Britain's most influential radical literary critic. He's been a fellow of four Oxford & Cambridge colleges, & is presently Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford. Derek Jarman was both a major film-maker & artist, a gay activist & an English patriot. Caravaggio & Blue were both acclaimed feature films. "An imaginative & serious attempt to render its subject's life in form & color."--The New Republic

This memoir blends autobiography with moral, political and cultural reflections. Thoughts about god, evil, suffering, death and tragedy are interwoven with comic or moving scenes from Eagleton's life: his bizarre experiences as a young altar server in a convent of enclosed nuns; his precarious career in 1960s Cambridge as one of the few working-class students among a set of public school boys; and his abortive experience of life in a seminary. Eagleton was brought up in Salford in a working-class Catholic family and is now Thomas Warton Professor of English at the University of Oxford. His book discloses the more personal, spiritual side of a well-known cultural thinker; mixing the serious with the hilarious, life with ideas, the personal with the political.

In this new presentation of the Gospels, Terry Eagleton makes a powerful and provocative argument for Jesus Christ as a social, political and moral radical, a friend of anti-imperialists, outcasts and marginals, a champion of the poor, the sick and immigrants, and as an opponent of the rich, religious hierarchs, and hypocrites everywhere—in other words, as a figure akin to revolutionaries like Robespierre, Marx, and Che Guevara.

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.

In a controversial book that is sure to spark debate, the author argues for the relevancy of Marxism, rebutting the 10 most common objections to the political thought system and explaining the advantages Marxism has over capitalism.

Terry Eagleton explains that freedom, for Marx, entailed release from commerciallabour, "a kind of creative superabundance over what is materially essential". Eagleton outlines the relationship between production, labour and ownership which lie at the core of Marx's thinking. Marx's utopia was a place in which labour is increasingly automated, emancipating the wealth of sensuous individualdevelopment so that "savouring a peach [is an aspect] of our self-actualisation as much as building dams".

A trenchant analysis of sacrifice as the foundation of the modern, as well as the ancient, social order

For Marx, freedom entailed release from commercial labour - 'we are free when, like artists, we produce without the goad of physical necessity.' In this highly engaging account, Eagleton outlines the relationship between production, labour and ownership which lie at the core of Marx's thinking. Marx's utopia was a place in which labour is increasingly automated, emancipating the wealth of sensuous individual development so that 'savouring a peach [is an aspect] of our self-actualisation as much as building dams or churning out coat-hangers'. Combing extracts from Marx's revolutionary philosophy, along with insightful analysis, this is the perfect guide to one of the world's greatest thinkers.

Terry Eagleton is one of the most important—and most radical—theorists writing today. His witty and acerbic attacks on contemporary culture and society are read and enjoyed by many, and his studies of literature are regarded as classics of contemporary criticism. Ranging across the key works of Raymond Williams, Lenin, Trostsky, Brecht, Adorno, Benjamin, Lukacs and Sartre, he develops a nuanced critique of traditional literary criticism while producing a compelling theoretical account of ideology. Eagleton uses this perspective to offer fascinating analyses of canonical writers, including George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence.

In this investigation of the idea of terror, a cultural critic offers a metaphysics of terror with a serious historical perspective that draws upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to present day.

Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader. Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content.

In a virtuoso display of erudition, thoughtfulness and humour, Terry Eagleton teases apart the concept of hope as it has been (often mistakenly) conceptualised over six millennia, from ancient Greece to today. He distinguishes hope from simple optimism, cheeriness, desire, idealism or adherence to the doctrine of Progress, bringing into focus a standpoint that requires reflection and commitment, arises from clear-sighted rationality, can be cultivated by practice and self-discipline, and which acknowledges but refuses to capitulate to the realities of failure and defeat. Authentic hope is indubitably tragic, yet Eagleton also argues for its radical implications as ‘a species of permanent revolution, whose enemy is as much political complacency as metaphysical despair’. It is a means of facing the future without devaluing the moment or obviating the past. Traversing centuries of thought about the many modes of hoping – from Ernst Bloch’s monumental work through the Stoics, Aquinas, Marx and Kierkegaard, among others – this penetrating book throws new light on religious faith and political ideology as well as issues such as the problem of evil, the role of language and the meaning of the past. Hope Without Optimism is a brilliantly engaged, impassioned chronicle of human belief and desire in an increasingly uncertain world.

In this work, Eagleton investigates the condition of those who apparently destroy for no reason. In the process, he poses a set of intriguing questions. Is evil really a kind of nothingness? Why should it appear so glamorous and seductive? Why does goodness seem so boring?

A history and critique of the last 200 years of cultural criticism, from Addison and Steele to Barthes and Derrida.This wide-ranging book argues that criticism emerged in early bourgeois society as a central feature of a “public sphere” in which political, ethical, and literary judgements could mingle under the benign rule of reason. The disintegration of this fragile culture brought on a crisis in criticism, whose history since the 18th century has been fraught with ambivalence and anxiety.Eagleton’s account embraces Addison and Steele, Johnson and the 19-century reviewers, such critics as Arnold and Stephen, the heyday of Scrutiny and New Criticism, and finally the proliferation of avant-garde literary theories such as deconstructionism. The Function of Criticism is nothing less than a history and critique of the “critical institution” itself. Eagleton’s judgements on individual critics are sharp and illuminating, which his general argument raises crucial questions about the relations between language, literature and politics.

One of our most brilliant minds offers a sweeping intellectual history that argues for the reclamation of culture's value Culture is a defining aspect of what it means to be human. Defining culture and pinpointing its role in our lives is not, however, so straightforward. Terry Eagleton, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics, is uniquely poised to take on the challenge. In this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, he explores how culture and our conceptualizations of it have evolved over the last two centuries--from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism's encroaches to present-day capitalism's most profitable export. Ranging over art and literature as well as philosophy and anthropology, and major but somewhat "unfashionable" thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder and Edmund Burke as well as T. S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, and Oscar Wilde, Eagleton provides a cogent overview of culture set firmly in its historical and theoretical contexts, illuminating its collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, and the rise of and rule over the "uncultured" masses. Eagleton also examines culture today, lambasting the commodification and co-option of a force that, properly understood, is a vital means for us to cultivate and enrich our social lives, and can even provide the impetus to transform civil society.

DIV A literary master’s entertaining guide to reading with deeper insight, better understanding, and greater pleasure /div

A new account of tragedy and its fundamental position in Western culture

Launches a critique of postmodern culturalism Argues for a more complex relation between Culture and Nature Tries to retrieve the importance of such concepts as human nature from a non-naturalistic perspective Draws attention to the deficiencies of elitism. schovat popis

"The Truth about the Irish separates the myths from the reality with a blend of caustic commentary, jokes that will make you laugh out loud, and answers to questions you were too polite to ask." "From Alcohol to X-rated, from Celtic Tiger to Irish Wake, Eagleton paints an entertaining but nevertheless accurate picture of a new Ireland that may have lost the leprechaun but appears to have found the pot of gold."--BOOK JACKET

We have all wondered about the meaning of life. Is there an answer? Is it up to us? Or is the question a bogus one? Terry Eagleton takes a witty, stimulating look at this most compelling of questions - and proposes his own answer.

A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture—by one of its greatest exponentsWritten by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit? Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.

Exploring the ideas of a pivotal twentieth-century thinker, this classic study delves into the profound impact of socialism on modern thought. The author, a renowned socialist critic, examines the intellectual legacy and contributions of this influential figure, highlighting key themes and concepts that shaped political discourse. Through insightful analysis, the book reveals the complexities of the thinker's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues, making it a vital read for those interested in political theory and social critique.

Was macht gute Romane, bedeutende Theaterstücke oder ausgereifte Gedichte aus? Die berühmten ›Bücher, die man gelesen haben muss‹ haben – wenn sie mehr sind als Modeerscheinungen, sondern große Literatur – weit mehr zu bieten als nur eine gute Geschichte. Ihre Kraft liegt ebenso in der kunstvollen Anlage von Handlung und Figuren, ja selbst von einzelnen Sätzen und Wendungen. Der renommierte britische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftler Terry Eagleton nutzt das Handwerkszeug der Literaturanalyse in seiner ganzen Vielfalt, er untersucht rhetorische Stilmittel, und erklärt, wie literarische Gattungen funktionieren müssen. Unterhaltsam lässt Eagleton den Leser in die vielfältigen Bedeutungsebenen literarischer Werke von Shakespeare bis J. K. Rowling eintauchen und zeigt, wie die Texte ihre Wirkung entfalten. Theoretisch versiert und scharfsinnig, dabei gewohnt unorthodox, vermittelt Terry Eagleton das Geschäft des Literaturkritikers und lädt zugleich jeden von uns ein, mit neuen Augen zu lesen.

Ist das „Ende der Ideologie“ nahe? Das Werk bringt Klarheit in die Vielzahl der Ideologiedefinitionen von der Aufklärung bis zur Postmoderne, bei Marx, Engels, Lukács, Gramsci, Adorno, Althusser und anderen. Witzig, geistreich, außerordentlich informativ und mit spitzer Feder geschrieben.

Die Postmoderne als Phänomen der Alltagskultur. Terry Eagleton schreibt aus einer politischen Perspektive über die Stärken und Schwächen der Postmoderne-Bewegung, die er als die Ideologie unserer Zeit begreift. Ein ungewöhnlicher Beitrag zur lebhaft geführten Debatte um die Postmoderne.

„Kultur“ ist in aller Munde. Aber was ist Kultur? Eine Magazin-Rubrik oder die „Einheit des künstlerischen Stils eines Volkes“ (F. Nietzsche); „erlesenes Getue“ (L. Marcuse) oder ganz einfach eine „künstlich erzeugte Illusion“ (W. B. Yeats)? Dieses Buch führt ein in die unterschiedlichen Aspekte, was uns Kultur bedeutet, was wir mit Kultur anderen bedeuten wollen, und welchen Unterschied es macht, von der Kultur einen Blick auf andere Kulturen zu werfen. Es gibt einen Überblick über die Geschichte des Begriffs, diskutiert die Gründe für die aktuelle Überbetonung und versucht einen Kulturbegriff zu entwickeln, der sich nicht an dominant hochstehend und banal, klassisch und unterhaltend orientiert.

Terry Eagleton setzt sich mit Religion und Kultur seit der Aufklärung auseinander. Was als Siegeszug des Atheismus erscheint, ist die Ursache für die Krise der westlichen Kultur: Am 11. September 2001 stürzten auch die Hoffnungen der Atheisten in sich zusammen. Das Bedürfnis zu glauben wächst seitdem umso stärker, je deutlicher der spirituelle Bankrott der kapitalistischen Ordnung sichtbar wird. Daraus entwickelt Eagleton seine Überzeugung als Linkskatholik: Er fordert keine religiöse Wohlfühlmoral, sondern eine radikale Änderung unserer Lebensweise. Am Anfang müsste die Solidarität mit den Armen und Machtlosen stehen – als Voraussetzung für ein längst überfälliges neues Verhältnis von Glaube, Kultur und Politik.

Interpretacyjna przenikliwość przeplata się w tej książce z zachętą do podjęcia ćwiczenia z ponownego nazywania. Na początku XX wieku Irlandczycy podobnie jak wiele innych narodów stanęli przed wyzwaniem zredefiniowania własnej tożsamości i znalezienia dla niej form wyrazu. Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson i Edward W. Said obierają to zagadnienie za centralny temat swoich rozważań, a doświadczenie irlandzkie jawi im się jako historia kolonialna, nie tracąc przy tym osobnego rysu. Kolonializm jest procesem wywłaszczania, stopniowym wykorzenianiem narodu z jego własnej kultury i języka. Dlatego wielkim zadaniem irlandzkiego modernizmu było nie tyle dawanie gotowych tożsamościowych wzorców, ile poszukiwanie tego, co utracone. Paradoksalnie jednak, gdy odkrywamy i nazywamy owo nieokreślone doświadczenie, wymyka się ono na zawsze. Z próby pogodzenia tej sprzeczności zrodziła się literatura nowoczesna, w tym powieści Jamesa Joycea czy poezja Williama Butlera Yeatsa.

Die Kategorie des Ästhetischen. Im Denken der Menschen besitzt das Ästhetische eine beherrschende Rolle und besticht durch seine Vielfalt und Wandelbarkeit. Dabei sind Freiheit und Gesetzmäßigkeit, Spontaneität und Notwendigkeit, Fremdbestimmung und Autonomie, Partikularität und Universalität die Erscheinungen, durch die das Ästhetische bestimmt wird. Brillant und provokativ beschreibt Eagelton die vielfältigen Beziehungen zwischen Kunst, Ethik und Politik in der Geschichte des modernen Denkens seit dem 18. Jahrhundert.

In seinem neuesten Werk setzt sich der bekannte britische Autor und Literaturwissenschaftler Terry Eagleton mit dem Verhältnis von Philosophie und Alltagserfahrung auseinander. Er bietet eine humanistische, für das praktische Zusammenleben der Menschen taugliche Variante des Denkens. Angesichts einer Gesellschaft, deren Mitglieder sich weitgehend als „materialistisch“ defi nieren und eines von emanzipatorischen Inhalten befreiten „New Materialism“ an den Universitäten hält Eagleton an einer „Politik der Materie“ fest, die für die Veränderung der Umstände eintritt. In einem Streifzug durch die Ideengeschichte des Materialismus, von Demokrit über Aristoteles bis hin zu Sigmund Freud, verteidigt der Autor die materialistische Gesinnung auch gegen aktuelle Trends der „Cultural Studies“ und postmoderner Strömungen.

Das Kommunistische Manifest ist eines der glanzvollsten Werke des Marxismus. Bis heute gibt es kaum eine bessere Einführung in die sozialistische Theorie.Mit biblischer Sprachgewalt, witzig, spöttisch, einfach unterhaltsam und mit fast prophetischer Gabe analysieren Marx und Engels die Entwicklung des Kapitalismus, seiner Kräfte und Krisen.Der bekannte britische Literaturtheoretiker Terry Eagleton (Warum Marx Recht hat, Das Böse, Der Sinn des Lebens) ergreift in seiner Einleitung hier neu vorgelegten Originaltext von Marx und Engels elan- und humorvoll Partei für den Text, wobei er mit leichter Feder und starken Argumenten zugleich die beliebtesten Anfechtungen der marxistischen Theorie widerlegt.

Kniha Idea kultury (Idea of Culture) Terryho Eagletona se zabývá různými významy a pojetími kultury. Autor kritizuje takzvaný „postmoderní kulturalismus“ a volá po komplexním studiu vztahu mezi kulturou a přirozeností. Překlad knihy může českým čtenářům sloužit jako úvod do současného „kulturního“ diskurzu. Může také podnítit debatu o důležitosti kultury a o jejím postavení v současném světě, potažmo v České republice. Přístupnost a invence této publikace jistě zaujme širokou vrstvu čtenářů, od univerzitních profesorů a studentů po běžné čtenáře, kteří se zajímají o humanitní vědy.

Autor předkládá komplexní studii tragédie od Aischyla až po Edwarda Albeeho, přičemž pojednává o teorii i praxi a pohybuje se mezi obecnými koncepty tragédie a analýzou jednotlivých děl a autorů. Neomezuje se pouze na tragické umění a zasahuje i do oblasti tragédie reálného života. Zkoumá pojem tragična v románech autorů, jako jsou Melville, Hawthorne, Stendhal, Flaubert, Dostojevskij, Kafka, Goethe, Mann a angličtí romanopisci. Eagleton s charakteristickou brilantností a pronikavostí ducha klade vedle sebe literaturu, filozofii, etiku, teologii a politickou teorii. Přitom dospívá k obecné politicko-filozofické syntéze založené na překvapivě rozsáhlé škále západního myšlení vyjádřené spisy autorů, jako byli Platón, svatý Pavel, svatý Augustin, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Sartre a další. Kniha se staví nesouhlasně k myšlence "smrti tragédie" a při obhajobě radikálního a kontroverzního stanoviska předkládá úplný přehled definic tragédie samotné.