Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory

Eagleton’s book provides a critical overview of literary theory, while problematizing the very process of categorisation of literature itself and identifying the games of power and their legitimising ideologies involved in the process. He goes on to suggest the role of power structures involved in the rise of English literature in great detail, without glossing over the complex contradictions of political economy. Subsequently, he introduces his readers to some tenets and live debates within and about the fields of semiotics, psychoanalysis, deconstruction and among other things.

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What is Literature?" is a question that Terry Eagleton attempts to answer in his book Literary Theory: An Introduction. Eagleton analyzes a wide range of definitions offered by a wide range of discourses. He concludes that there is no universally accepted definition of literature since it is so open to the impact of individual ideas and cultural norms: "Literature cannot in fact be objectively defined." (7) Eagleton Elaborates on this question by means of an analytical deconstructive approach which breaks down a complex structure into its parts so as to understand its whole in a better way.

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