Critical Revolutionaries: Five Critics Who Changed the Way We Read

by Terry Eagleton

Terry Eagleton looks back across sixty years to an extraordinary critical milieu that transformed the study of literature


Before the First World War, traditional literary scholarship was isolated from society at large. In the years following, a younger generation of critics came to the fore. Their work represented a reaction to the impoverishment of language in a commercial, utilitarian society increasingly under the sway of film, advertising, and the popular press. For them, literary criticism was a way of diagnosing social ills and had a vital moral function to perform.


Terry Eagleton reflects on the lives and work of T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, William Empson, F. R. Leavis, and Raymond Williams, and explores a vital tradition of literary criticism that today is in danger of being neglected. These five critics rank among the most original and influential of modern times, and represent one of the most remarkable intellectual formations in twentieth-century Britain. This was the heyday of literary modernism, a period of change and experimentation—the bravura of which spurred on developments in critical theory.

Genres: Nonfiction, Criticism, Literature, Literary Criticism

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 26, 2022

About the author

Widely regarded as England's most influential living literary critic & theorist, Dr. Terry Eagleton currently serves as Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster and as Visiting Professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He was Thomas Warton Prof. of English Literature at the University of Oxford ('92-01) & John Edward Taylor Professor of English Literature at the University of Manchester 'til '08. He returned to the University of Notre Dame in the Autumn '09 semester as Distinguished Visitor in the English Department.

He's written over 40 books, including Literary Theory: An Introduction ('83); The Ideology of the Aesthetic ('90) & The Illusions of Postmodernism ('96).
He delivered Yale's '08 Terry Lectures and gave a Gifford Lecture in 3/10, titled The God Debate.

Reviews

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inadvertently depressing because there is no longer this kind of high cultural criticism to make sense not only of literature but of culture and society. I’m sure someone has already dismissed this as too Anglo etc etc instead of engaging with the critics, and Eagleton. Eagleton is a very good writer and guide but he does tend to rely on stylistic assertion rather than evidence. It would have been helpful if he’d connected his critics’ larger goals (the meaning of language, humanity, tone etc) to literature itself instead of making frequently overly glib societal analogies.

[J]

what a bad cover lol

[GwenViolet · Rating 3 out of 5]

if nothing else a book of very funny anecdotes. makes the case that its subjects are unfairly disregarded in a post "French invasion" (for lack of a better term) of English lit (a sentiment which I'm inclined to agree with) but sometimes Eagleton lapses into the hilariously petty; a lot of stuff seems to remind him of how bad the postmoderns are.

He is good at reconstructing viewpoints while also making it clear where he stands, but I couldn't help but want more. It's more of an "intro" than a full study, and it did make me want to read Empson and Richards, so that's a win, but I can't help but wish it was a little more cohesive at points.

[Elton Furlanetto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essa foi uma leitura demorada, que nem as férias ajudaram a desenrolar. Mas, mesmo lento, foi interessante aprender umas coisas novas sobre a biografia e a obra desses críticos. Não conhecia nada do Empson, pouco da vida do Leavis e gostei da crítica que ele coloca no final do Williams, que foi professor dele e tal. Talvez ler em português daria mais fluidez para o texto ou o capítulo ser melhor dividido em subcapítulos teria ajudado.

[Daniel Silliman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at five literary theorists who changed the way we study literature in college. Eagleton is a clear writer, so even when you can't imagine making it through a whole book by, say, F.R. Leavis, the prose here is clean and readable.

I do wish the book did a little more "big picture" work. A conclusion might have been helpful. But with that limitation, the five in-depth studies provided here are really interesting and offer a lot of insight into how the question of what we do when we study literature has changed in the 20th century.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Missing from Eagleton's book is any attempt to portray  intellectual ferment in the most revolutionary historical period in Europe since 1789-1799: the epoch of world revolution inaugurated by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Full review: http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/202...

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of literary criticism about literary critics can feel redundant at times but this one was worth the effort. These writers lived in a time when the “cult of the author”, seeing great writers as quasi mythical figures endowed with god like genius, was still very much a part of the education system. They dispel this myth but also introduce into criticism more humane and personal touches so that reading their works you feel more like you are in conversation with the critic rather than being lectured at. By turns analytic and filled with juicy gossip(Empson and Eliot used to get roaring drunk together) this was a delight to read.

[Kanako Okiron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part philosophy, part literature, part politics, this book touches on everything you need to know about five (white male) critics that you may/may not have heard of - and Eagleton cleverly mentions at the beginning how it’s up to you to decide whether the critics are truly revolutionary. Eagleton writes in a way that is both formal and easy to understand.

[Nav · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this to anyone who doesn't have (at least) some foundational knowledge of the topic at hand. This would be rated two, but the author is entertainingly savage about the critics examined here.

[Jo Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, superb, insightful, witty

[Mauberley]

Wonderful.

[Ashley Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty technical, but a great read if you are interested in understanding the ideas of modernity and literary theory/ criticism through the perspective of modern-postmodern thought.

[Anson Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the T. S. Elliot chapter… man, I love Eagleton, but he made too many references to things I didn’t understand :(