Culture

Terry Eagleton

Published by Yale University Press 2016

Culture

Terry Eagleton

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300221725

Overview
Contents

About this book

One of our most brilliant minds offers a sweeping intellectual history that argues for the reclamation of culture’s value

Culture is a defining aspect of what it means to be human. Defining culture and pinpointing its role in our lives is not, however, so straightforward. Terry Eagleton, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics, is uniquely poised to take on the challenge. In this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, he explores how culture and our conceptualizations of it have evolved over the last two centuries—from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism’s encroaches to present-day capitalism’s most profitable export. Ranging over art and literature as well as philosophy and anthropology, and major but somewhat "unfashionable" thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder and Edmund Burke as well as T. S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, and Oscar Wilde, Eagleton provides a cogent overview of culture set firmly in its historical and theoretical contexts, illuminating its collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, and the rise of and rule over the "uncultured" masses. Eagleton also examines culture today, lambasting the commodification and co-option of a force that, properly understood, is a vital means for us to cultivate and enrich our social lives, and can even provide the impetus to transform civil society.

Author / Editor information

Terry Eagleton is distinguished professor of English literature, University of Lancaster. He lives in Northern Ireland.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
1. Culture and Civilisation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Postmodern Prejudices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
3. The Social Unconscious Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
4. An Apostle of Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
5. From Herder to Hollywood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Conclusion: The Hubris of Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 192

eBook

Published: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 9780300221725