Terry Eagleton
A history and critique of the last 200 years of cultural criticism, from Addison and Steele to Barthes and Derrida.,This wide-ranging book argues that criticism emerged in early bourgeois society as a central feature of a â€œpublic sphereâ€ in which political, ethical, and literary judgements could mingle under the benign rule of reason. The disintegration of this fragile culture brought on a crisis in criticism, whose history since the 18th century has been fraught with ambivalence and anxiety.,Eagletonâ€™s account embraces Addison and Steele, Johnson and the 19-century reviewers, such critics as Arnold and Stephen, the heyday of ,Scrutiny, and New Criticism, and finally the proliferation of avant-garde literary theories such as deconstructionism. ,The Function of Criticism, is nothing less than a history and critique of the â€œcritical institutionâ€ itself. Eagletonâ€™s judgements on individual critics are sharp and illuminating, which his general argument raises crucial questions about the relations between language, literature and politics.
Philosophy,Theory,Criticism,Literary Criticism,Philosophy,Criticism,Nonfiction,Literature,Academic,Politics,History,Literature,20th Century
The Function of Criticism