Terry Eagleton (born in Salford, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), England, on February 22, 1943) is a British literary critic and philosopher. Statistics Population: 72,750 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SJ805985 Administration Borough: Salford Metropolitan county: Greater Manchester Region: North West England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Greater Manchester Historic county: Lancashire Services Police force: Greater Manchester Police Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}} Ambulance: North West Post... Lancashire is a county in North West England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England and has a population of 2. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ...

Career

Eagleton obtained his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge and then became a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Having spent some years at Oxford at Wadham College, Linacre College and St. Catherine's College, he is currently Professor of Cultural Theory and John Rylands Fellow at the University of Manchester. Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names King’s Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... College name Wadham College Named after Nicholas Wadham Established 1610 Sister College Christs College Warden Sir Neil Chalmers JCR President Ben Jasper Undergraduates 460 MCR President David Patrikarakos Graduates 180 Homepage Boatclub Wadham College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, located at the southern... College name Linacre College Named after Thomas Linacre Established 1962 Sister College Wolfson College Principal Prof. ... St Catherines College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... Culture theory is the branch of anthropology and other related social science disciplines (e. ... John Rylands (February 7, 1801 - December 11, 1888) was a British weaver and entrepreneur. ... The University of Manchester is a large university located in Manchester, England. ...

Eagleton was the student of the Marxist literary critic Raymond Williams. He began his career studying the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Then he switched to Marxist literary theory in the vein of Williams. More recently Eagleton has integrated cultural studies with more traditional literary theory. He was, during the 1960s, involved in the left-wing Catholic group Slant and authored a number of theological articles as well as a book Towards a New Left Theology. His most recent publications have suggested a renewed interest in theological themes. Another significant theoretical influence on Eagleton is psychoanalysis and he has been an important advocate of the work of Slavoj Žižek in the United Kingdom. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Raymond Williams (31 August 1921 - 26 January 1988) was a highly influential Welsh academic, novelist and critic. ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... Cultural studies is an academic discipline popular among a diverse group of Anglo-American scholars. ... Slant was the name of a Catholic journal associated with Cambridge University and the Dominicans during the 1960s, and of the group associated with this journal. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (born March 21, 1949) is a Slovenian sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic. ...

Published Thought

Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983, rev 1996), probably his best-known work, traces history of the contemporary study of text, from the Romantics of the 19th century to the postmodernists of the last few decades. Eagleton's thought remains firmly rooted in the Marxist tradition, and he has written critically on more recent modes of thought such as deconstruction. As his memoir The Gatekeeper demonstrates, Eagleton's Marxism is far from being a solely theoretical interest. He was active in Marxist organisations (notably the International Socialists - forerunner to the Socialist Workers Party - and then Alan Thornett's Workers Socialist League) whilst in Oxford. He continues to provide commentary on political events in publications such as the New Statesman, Red Pepper and The Guardian. 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, because the term implies to many that the modern historical period has passed. ... In contemporary philosophy and social sciences, the term deconstruction denotes a process by which the texts and languages of (particularly) Western philosophy appear to shift and complicate in meaning when read in light of the assumptions they suggest about and absences they reveal within themselves. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Alan Thornett (born 1937) is a British Trotskyist leader. ... The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ... Red Pepper is an independent ‘red, green and radical’ magazine based in the UK. Origins Red Pepper was founded by the Socialist Movement – an independent left-wing grouping that grew out of a series of large conferences held in Chesterfield after the defeat of Britain’s miners’ strike. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

After Theory (2003), indicts current cultural and literary theory, and what Eagleton sees as the bastardization of both. However, he does not conclude that the interdisciplinary study of literature and culture is theoretically without merit; in fact, Eagleton argues that such a merging is effective at addressing a wide range of significant topics. His indictment centers on theorists' and postmodernity's rejection of absolutes. He concludes that an absolute does exist: Every person lives in a body that cannot be owned because nothing was done to acquire it and nothing (besides suicide) can be done to be rid of the body. Our bodies and their subsequent deaths are now an absolute around which humankind can focus its actions. Terry Eagleton has also completed a trilogy of works on Irish culture. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Comments on Religion

Eagleton produced a scathing and widely quoted^[1] review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in the London Review of Books in which he stated that "Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology."^[2] Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... The God Delusion is a non-fiction book by British ethologist and atheist Richard Dawkins, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... The London Review of Books (or LRB) is a twice-monthly British literary magazine. ...

Status as Philosopher

Many regard Eagleton to be a philosopher. It is true that many of his texts include philosophical aspects and debates, but Eagleton himself does not claim to be a philosopher and in fact openly disputes this. This is seen in a footnote on the first page of his book "The Meaning of Life" (2007): 'Perhaps I should add that I am not myself a philosopher, a fact which I am sure some of my reviewers will point out in any case.'

Publications

• The Body as Language : outline of a new left theology (1970)
• Criticism & Ideology (1976)
• Marxism and Literary Criticism (1976)
• Walter Benjamin, or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism (1981)
• Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983/1996)
• The Function of Criticism (1984)
• Saint Oscar (a play about Oscar Wilde)
• Raymond Williams: Critical Perspectives (editor) Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989.
• The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990)
• Ideology: An Introduction (1991)
• The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996)
• "Heathcliff and the Great Hunger" (1996)
• "Crazy John and the Bishop and Other Essays on Irish Culture" (1998)
• The Idea of Culture (2000)
• The Gatekeeper: A Memoir (2001)
• The Truth about the Irish (2001)
• Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2002)
• After Theory (2003)
• The English Novel: An Introduction (2004)
• Holy Terror (2005)
• The Meaning of Life (2007)
• How to Read a Poem (2007)

Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, short story writer and Freemason. ... As a literary genre, a memoir (from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...

Quotation

• "Cultural theory as we have it promises to grapple with some fundamental problems, but on the whole fails to deliver. It has been shamefaced about morality and metaphysics, embarrassed about love, biology, religion and revolution, largely silent about evil, reticent about death and suffering, dogmatic about essences, universals and foundations, and superficial about truth, objectivity and disinterestedness. This, on any estimate, is rather a large slice of human existence to fall down on. It is also, as we have suggested before, rather an awkward moment in history to find oneself with little or nothing to say about such fundamental questions." After Theory by Terry Eagleton, 2003.

• "In some traditionalist universities not long ago, you could not research on authors who were still alive. This was a great incentive to slip a knife between their ribs one foggy evening, or a remarkable test of patience if your chosen novelist was in rude health and only 34." After Theory, by Terry Eagleton

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Terry Eagleton

• Eagleton's homepage
• High Priest of Lit Crit, Guardian February 2, 2002 - profile on the publication of his memoir, "The Gatekeeper"
• Some articles by Eagleton from the London Review of Books
• Article on socialism
• The roots of terror
• Terry Eagleton at www.contemporarywriters.com