Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (4): 103-110.

• Issue in Focus:Studies in Postmodernism and Literature • Previous Articles     Next Articles

How to Study Literature with "After Theory": Focusing on Eagleton's Event of Literature

Sun Yan   

  1. the School of Liberal Arts, Zhejiang University of Media and Communications (Hangzhou 310018, China)
  • Online:2016-07-25 Published:2017-09-29
  • About author:Sun Yan is an associate professor in the School of Liberal Arts, Zhejiang University of Media and Communications (Hangzhou 310018, China), with research interests in criticism of literature and art, and contemporary film and TV culture.

Abstract: In The Event of Literature, Terry Eagleton tries to elucidate on the literary philosophical questions pertaining to the decline of theory, and calls for a return to literature itself by breaking through the delimitations of politico-cultural studies as in post-colonialist and post-modernist criticism. However, Eagleton does not revert to pure formal research in the "after theory" period as he does not believe formalism can save literary studies. For Eagleton who has a Catholic background, the authority of new religion lies in ethical rather than aesthetic claims. What Eagleton tries to bypass the fruitless debate over essentialism and revive Aristotelian ethnical ideas so as to promote literary studies with virtue ethics and to open a way to reconstruct literary theory that is connected with critical theory and analytical philosophy.

Key words: After Theory, literary study, Terry Eagleton, The Event of Literature