Home / Quotes / Quote by Terry Eagleton

Quote by Terry Eagleton

“Reading a text is more like tracing this process of constant flickering than it is like counting the beads on a necklace.”

Quote by Terry Eagleton

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Work

Literary Theory: An Introduction

This book serves as an introductory resource for understanding the various theories and methodologies that shape the study of literature. It covers key concepts such as structuralism, postmodernism, and deconstruction, offering insights into the analysis of literary texts and their cultural contexts. more

Author

Terry Eagleton is a renowned British literary critic, known for his research on Marxist literary theory. His work spans a wide range of literary and theoretical topics, influencing cultural studies and political commentary as well. more

You May Also Like

“Writing seems to rob me of my being: it is a second hand mode of communication, a pallid, mechanical transcript of speech, and so always at one remove from my consciousness.”

Writing Hands Seems Consciousness Communication Speech Remove Second Hand

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“It is difficult to think of an origin without wanting to go back beyond it.”

Thinking Difficult

Author:Terry Eagleton

“It is language which speaks in literature, in all its swarming 'polysemic' plurality, not the author himself.”

Literature Speak Language

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“We live in a society which on the one hand pressurizes us into the pursuit of instant gratification, and the other hand imposes on whole sectors of the population and endless deferment of fulfillment.”

Whole Hands Population Pursuit Endless Fulfillment Instant Gratification Instant Gratification

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Any attempt to define literary theory in terms of a distinctive method is doomed to failure.”

Term Theory Method Doomed Distinctive Literary Theory

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“The truth is that liberal humanism is at once largely ineffectual, and the best ideology of the 'human' that present bourgeois society can muster.”

Humans Truth Is Humanism Ideology Bourgeois Muster

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night.”

Night Understanding Owl Hegel Retrospective Minerva

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“If history moves forward, knowledge of it travels backwards, so that in writing of our own recent past we are continually meeting ourselves coming the other way.”

Ifs Way Writing Past Moving Meetings Moving Forward Backwards Recent Past

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“I do not know whether to be delighted or outraged by the fact that Literary Theory: An Introduction was the subject of a study by a well known U.S. business school, which was intrigued to discover how an academic text could become a best-seller.”

Knows Wells Facts School Known Study Subjects Theory Academic Well Known Introduction Delighted Intrigued Sellers Outraged Best Sellers Business School Literary Theory

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“In conscious life, we achieve some sense of ourselves as reasonably unified, coherent selves, and without this action would be impossible. But all this is merely at the 'imaginary' level of the ego, which is no more than the tip of the iceberg of the human subject known to psychoanalysis. The ego is function or effect of a subject which is always dispersed, never identical with itself, strung out along the chains of the discourses which constitute it.”

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction