Literary Theory An Introduction
Metadata
- Author: Terry Eagleton
Highlights
The economist J. M. Keynes once remarked that those economists who disliked theory, or claimed to get along better without it, were simply in the grip of an older theory. This is also true of literary students and critics. There are soine who complain that literary theory is impossibly esoteric - who suspect it as an arcane, elitist enclave somewhat akin to nuclear physics. It is true that a ‘literary education’ does not exactly encourage analytical thought; but literary theory is in fact no more difficult than many theoretical enquiries, and a good deal easier than some. — location: 53
The simple response to this is that without some kind of theory, however unreflective and implicit.. we would not know what a ‘literary work’ was in the first place, or how we were to read it. Hostility to theory usually means an opposition to other people’s theories and an oblivion of one’s own. One purpose ofthis book is to lift that repression and allow us to remember. — location: 60