in the 1930s, which he criticizes for treating poems as isolated objects detached from their historical and political contexts. Helpful Resources Eagleton's Rise of English Literature | PDF - Scribd
For Eagleton, the "aesthetic" is a deeply political category. By focusing on "ambiguity," "paradox," and "irony" (the New Critical method that dominated the mid-20th century), English teachers trained students to appreciate complexity in poetry but to ignore complexity in social injustice. It taught that a well-formed stanza is superior to a well-formed social protest. Terry eagleton the rise of english pdf
Eagleton famously argues that "Literature" does not have a fixed definition. in the 1930s, which he criticizes for treating
Eagleton’s central, cynical, and electrifying argument is this: in the 1930s