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After Theory (Paperback)

by Terry Eagleton (Author) "The golden age of cultural theory is long past ..." (more)
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (26 Aug 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141015071
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141015071
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 144,932 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
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.

About the Author
Terry Eagleton is Professor of Cultural Theory at Manchester University. His books include Literary Theory, a trilogy on Irish culture, a novel, several plays, the screenplay for Derek Jarman's film Wittgenstein, and an autobiography, The Gatekeeper (Penguin 2001).
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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The golden age of cultural theory is long past. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Theory of Today: Wars, Capitalism and the Totalitarian Regime, 31 Aug 2006
By Turhan Uludag (Famagusta, North Cyprus) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
After Theory is highly a significant piece of document to read. Some academicians read it and criticize it for its playfulness and its weakness to find a real solution to the problems that face us today. Eagleton is at least pointing out the "questions" one must follow, in order to face the politics of contemporary culture; this may be capitalism, totalitarianism or could be narcissism "western narcissism involved in working on the history of pubic hair while half the world's population lacks adequate sanitation and survives on less than two dollars a day" (Eagleton, p.6) With this brief quaotation, he is simply saying that a theory that wants to change the world should implement a Marxist agenda. Otherwise, it would prove nothing about humanity in general. In other words, in the words of Derrida, "there is no future without Marx". Other than that, he is funny, entertaining and outstandingly political writer. Every student of literature should read After Theory and must come up with something new: something to face the problems of todays world - wars around the world, America's hypocritical politics about terrorism and so forth. Briefly, perhaps what After Theory is suggesting is that literature/theory must not be detached from the politics of our world.

Highly recommended...
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening read, 5 Oct 2006
By Belfast garden (Belfast, Ireland) - See all my reviews
To a certain extent I agree with some of the other reviewers who have complained that Eagleton is all over the place with this book. But it's a hell of a big subject he has chosen to tackle - and inevitably he has aimed for brevity and clarity over completeness.

It's certainly the only book on cultural theory that I have read as a general reader that is witty, thought-provoking and (best of all) understandable.

I read this on a cramped trans-atlantic flight with a 21 month baby asleep on my lap and zipped through it. The number of exciting ideas Eagleton throws up is huge and well worth the cover price.
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38 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars plagued by vagueness, 23 Oct 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: After Theory (Hardcover)
I'm a Eagleton "fan", if you judge him to have sufficient celebrity to make that possible. I was introduced to his work via Ideology of the Aesthetic as an undergraduate, and I've always been eager to read his pieces when they appear in the popular press. Although I don't go in for it much, I did read The Gatekeeper, which was a entertaining account of his childhood and later life, which contained a good dose of first-hand accounts of the silliness (and seriousness) of liberal theory and practice.

I also have more than a passing interest in high theory, and I've read (and enjoyed) Foucalt, Adorno, Heidegger, Deluze, as well as their acolytes like critic Stephen Greenblatt and philosopher Slavoj Zizek. So I was excited to read After Theory. Here we go, I thought -- a first rate mind comes up against a first rate problem: the status of critical theory in the next generation, and its relationship to the larger culture. Sufficiently excited, even, to order the book from the UK (I'm in the States, and it won't come out here until March 2004.)

I'm incredibly disappointed with "After Theory." It is one long ramble about the history of the world and the history of theory (two things with quite different time spans.) There is next-to-zero citation from theorists to illustrate the rather contentious things Eagleton might say at times about the "true nature" of some theorist's project. There is precious little evidence at all, really, and little argumentative effort invested.

Instead, After Theory rambles like a tourist bus through various hot spots (9/11, WTO protests, conferences on masturbation, ill defined groups of hungry people in Africa), pausing only to issue a vague judgement or two before shuttling you on to somewhere else. Eagleton has lost the ability to distinguish between start and finish in the broad sense where you try to derive an interesting point from something apparently less interesting.

I call it the "Brazil or Indonesia" style of writing. More than once in his chapters (more than once on a page, sometimes), Eagleton will say something very vague and tack on "in Brazil or Indonesia." (Well, sometimes it's Kenya or Indonesia, or Kenya and Ulster -- you get the point.) The problem is that Brazil and Indonesia are (to put it mildly) very different places, and anything you say about the nature of culture or politics that applies to both places is either trivial or contentious or flat out wrong.

So, sadly: give this one a miss.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Blinkered
Terry Eagleton, the one time enfant terrible of the establishment, is now merely an anomaly, a political dinosaur where once existed some semblance of innovation and witty... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2004 by tommyregan

5.0 out of 5 stars Eagleton is on top form again
This book is a wonderful, thought-provoking read from start to finish. It is empassioned and intelligent, and bears the mark of one of the most politically (and ethically)... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2004 by Cyril Smith

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