Marxism and Literary Criticism by Terry Eagleton, ISBN-13: 978-0520032439
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- Publisher: University of California Press (August 16, 1976)
- Language: English
- 96 pages
- ISBN-10: 0520032438
- ISBN-13: 978-0520032439
Marxist literary criticism is becoming increasingly important in Europe as a whole, and interest in the subject is rapidly growing in this country. In this book, Dr. Eagleton analyses the major issues that the subject presents, discussing the writing of Marx and Engels themselves and the work of such critics as Plekhanov, Trotsky, Lenin, Lukacs, Goldmann, Caudwell, Benjamin and Brecht. They are seen from four viewpoints central to Marxist thought: the relation of literature to history, the problem of ‘form’ and ‘content’ in literature, the question of literature and political commitment, and the importance of production and technology in art. Dr. Eagleton’s exploration of these critical stances throws useful light on the connection between the Marxist approach and structuralism. The author stresses, however, that Marxist criticism cannot be seen simply in academic terms. In his preface he rejects the illusion of ‘neutrality’ in such a field, and writes: ‘Marxist criticism is part of a larger body of theoretical analysis which aims to understand ideologies–the ideas, values and feelings by which men experience their societies at various times. And certain of those ideas, values and feelings are available to us only in literature. To understand ideologies is to understand both the past and the present more deeply, and such understanding contributes to our liberation.’ Dr. Eagleton shows the part that Marxist criticism has to play in defining the crucial link between literature and historical conditions, and in so doing has produced a book that is both constructive and committed.
Table of Contents:
Preface to the Routledge Classics
Edition vii
Preface xi
1. Literature and history 1
Marx, Engels and criticism 1
Base and superstructure 3
Literature and superstructure 8
Literature and ideology 15
2. Form and content 19
History and form 19
Form and ideology 23
Lukács and literary form 25
Goldmann and genetic structuralism 29
Pierre Macherey and ‘decentred’ form 32
3. The writer and commitment 35
Art and the proletariat 35
Lenin, Trotsky and commitment 38
Marx, Engels and commitment 41
The reflectionist theory 45
Literary commitment and English Marxism 50
4. The author as producer 55
Art as production 55
Walter Benjamin 56
Bertolt Brecht and ‘epic’ theatre 59
Form and production 62
Realism or modernism? 65
Consciousness and production 67
Notes 71
Select Bibliography 79
Index 83
Terry Eagleton is Professor of Cultural Theory and John Rylands Fellow at the University of Manchester. His recent publications include Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2003), The Idea of Culture (2000), Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1999), Literary Theory: An Introduction and The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996), all published by Blackwell Publishing.
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