Marxism and Literary Criticism by Terry Eagleton, ISBN-13: 978-0520032439

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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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