Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory

"This study in literary theory, written by one of the foremost younger M arxist critics in England, explores some of the most tenacious and taxing problems in contemporary aesthetics. It starts with a survey of ideological factors which have shaped past and present literary criticism, which includes the first extended critique of the work of Raymond Williams to have appeared in the Anglo-Saxon world. It then proposes a M arxist critical method capable of dealing with ‘literary modes of production’ and ‘general’, ‘aesthetic’ and ‘authorial’ ideologies. Eagleton integrates certain semiologi- cal findings info a materialist reflection on the relations between literary text and Ideology, and poses central questions about the scientific character of criticism . H e also develops a concrete critique o f social and aesthetic ‘organicism’ in English literature from Arnold to Lawrence. The book ends with a chapter on the— too often evaded— problem of what is meant by literary ‘value’ in studies of literature. Criticism and Ideology represents a notable theoretical departure within contemporary Marxist aesthetics."