Since the Seventies and Eighties, following the demise of the political left, literary theory has become demodé, writes Terry Eagleton. The waning of a wave ‘pure’ theory – post-structuralism, psychoanalysis – and the resultant weakening of ‘radical critique’ has left four islands of study in its wake: post-colonialism, ethnicity, sexuality and cultural studies. Eagleton’s new book, The Event of Literature, reconnects with more philosophical concerns, returning to the question: what is literature? Unfortunately, his approach ultimately means shying further away from looking closely at novels and poems in their own right, frustrating the crucial question of literary value.
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