Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis "Terry" Eagleton FBA is a prominent British literary theorist, critic and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth22 February 1943
interesting language schizophrenic
Schizophrenic language has in this sense an interesting resemblance to poetry.
dream use
Americans use the word 'dream' as often as psychoanalysts do.
successful revolution ends
Successful revolutions are those which end up by erasing all traces of themselves.
thinking views tradition
The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive.
political historical recipes
Historical determinism is a recipe for political quietism.
racism today nostalgia
Today, nostalgia is almost as unacceptable as racism.
cat night black
In the deep night of metaphysics, all cats look black.
logic inevitable internals
History works itself out by an inevitable internal logic.
jesus pain justice
The New Testament is a brutal destroyer of human illusions. If you follow Jesus and don't end up dead, it appears you have some explaining to do. The stark signifier of the human condition is one who spoke up for love and justice and was done to death for his pains. The traumatic truth of human history is a mutilated body.
mean different needs
Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs.
men culture texture
Men and women do not easily submit to a power that does not weave itself into the texture of their daily existence - one reason why culture remains so politically vital. Civilisation cannot get on with culture, and it cannot get on without it.
two intellectual trying
The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress.
people astonishment toil
A socialist is just someone who is unable to get over his or her astonishment that most people who have lived and died have spent lives of wretched, fruitless, unremitting toil.
goal people evil
People do evil things because they are evil. Some people are evil in the way that some things are coloured indigo. They commit their evil deeds not to achieve some goal, but just because of the sort of people they are.