My name is Terry Eagleton and I am a Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and have written over 8 books.  I was born into a rural working-class family in Salford England and was educated at Trinity College.  At Trinity I became a student and disciple of Marxist literary critic Raymond Williams.  Since Williams’s death in 1988 I have been regarded as the premier British Marxist literary critic.  I have found that contemporary theories lack attention to politics; therefore I praise Marxist and feminist criticism for their concern with the political effects of literature.

In my first work of literary criticism titled Literary Theory: An Introduction I argue, “that literature concerns not simply beauty and spiritual uplift, but the social control of the middle and working classes.  I feel that the discipline of literature, like formal religion, is deeply involved in the reproduction of the dominant social order.  To demonstrate, I wrote a song that goes a little something like this:

Chaucer was a class traitor
Shakespeare hated the mob
Donne sold out a bit later
Sidney was a nob.

There are only three names
To be plucked from this dismal set
Milton Blake and Shelley
Will smash the ruling class yet! (2241)

I see the discipline of “English as an outgrowth of nationalism as well as a replacement for religion as a crucial ideological apparatus“ (2242).  I propose to you that “literature, has social significance not simply as an innocent, pleasurable entertainment but as a primary means of reinforcing dominant social order” (2242).

My new book, titled “After Theory is an example of how I have been instrumental in changing the intellectual lives, and curricula, of a generation of undergraduates.  In the early 1980’s when students of English literature were either battling Beowulf or plowing through prose by literary theorists announcing the Death of the Author and the pre-eminence of the Text, I took the literary theoretical bull by the horns and deconstructed it” (citation).

“Students today are engaging neither with history nor with post structuralism.  ‘What is sexy instead is sex’.  Quietly spoken middle-class students huddle diligently in libraries, at work on sensationalist subjects like vampirism and eye gouging, cyborgs and porno movies.  Cast adrift in the stormy currents of postmodernism, these students prefer to focus their energy on the history of pubic hair or the evolution of the television show “Friends”, a trend that I find politically catastrophic” (citation).

PBS:  I am the ghost of Romanticism.  You know, Percy Bysshe Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley.

HERB:  Not to be rude, but I don’t need help with my love life Mr. Shelley.  I need help with this review!

PBS:  Yes, yes I see.  I ask you this dear Herb:  “What is love but inspiration for writing--even if that writing is a review?  Is not writing a review on [Title of Dr Sexson’s paper goes here] a source of pleasure?

HERB:  Actually, at this moment it is kind of freaking me out. [Pinches himself and mumbles “must wake up” “must wake up”]

PBS: [very passionately] Herb!  Herb!  You must defend this piece of writing as “combining wisdom with delight; it is a source of pleasure; It kindles the sympathetic imagination, enabling us to locate ourselves in the place of another.  This review should unite individuals by breaking down the differences among them! (p. 697)

HERB:  Whoa there, old chap!

PBS:  [overwhelmed with emotion] This review must be a universal spiritual force of evanescent inspiration, superseding logic and will and possessing prophetic power!

HERB:  I’m not so sure that is what the author, Dr. Sexson had in mind.

PBS:  Oh the glorious author!  We must exalt him above even the work itself!  [Calming down a moment to ponder] Why Herb, this Sexson fellow “is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer his own solitude with the sweet sounds” (698) of The Matrix.

HERB:  That all sounds really nice, but no one in this day and age will appreciate such a sappy, flowery review.

PBS:  Why I don’t believe that at all!  If anything this piece of writing “is so closely linked to the society from which it rises that its health serves as a barometer of society’s heath.  It counterbalances the increasing sciences of calculation and accumulation, which worsens inequality and selfishness (697).  Remember Brian; poets are the “unacknowledged legislators of the World (698)”!  [Said while departing center stage] Defend author and his work with unbridled passion!

    In one of our first classes Dr. Sexson asked us to quote our favorite passage from a work of literature.  Sheepishly I raised my hand and said that my favorite passage, although short, is, “Words, Carraviaggio, they have power” from Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient.  In this paper, I will explain why this passage relates to Literary Criticism and the well-lived life.  I will also explore my own inner literary critic, how words are powerful tools, as well as how we as individuals are ultimately texts ourselves.
    I have come to terms with my own recipe of literary criticism.  I am overwhelmingly Romantic, with a pinch of Reader Response, and a dash of New Historicism.  The book The English Patient perfectly sums up my own critical style because it contains all three approaches.  First, highly charged emotions surge throughout the book.  Next, each time I read the book I find new meaning and inspiration that applies to my own life.  Finally, the message of the novel circles around the cultural problems of identity, hybridism, nationality and historical application to current issues.
    Romantic and Reader Response theory drives me toward inspiration, yet my application of criticism is much more along the lines of New Historicism.  I gain great, power, and inspiration from the written word.  I have always wondered why romance and history in literature constantly spark my interest.  Before English 300, I just thought that it was because of my silly fascination with these topics and had nothing to do with theory.  I now understand why we were asked to think about our favorite works of literature:  Studying Literary Theory reveals the reason why we latch onto themes in literature and who we are as theorists.
    It is one thing to be engaged in the context of books and quite another to break down what they mean in order to judge the author, text, or reader, which is the goal of every school of literary criticism.  I recently read a great paper titled “Pragmatism and Literary Criticism:  The Practical Starting Point” by David L. Hildebrand, in which he describes the “need for criticism to be both morally engaging and intellectually accessible”.  Mr. Hildebrand is a professor of philosophy and his students have become frustrated by the fact that “Philosophy [and Literary Criticism] purports to be about life, but instead seems to be only about theory”.  Like his students I, at times, have become very frustrated at Literary Criticism for its harsh judgment and tearing apart of the artistic inspiration I so value.  However, once I was able to see how many different sects of theory there actually are I was able to find my own niche and apply it to my life.
    The idea of literary critics as judges of creativity brings me to my second topic: The more you know the less you feel.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not buying into the “school if ignorance” jargon.  I am talking about a wisdom that comes from emotions.  An older friend of mine keeps saying things to me like, “Oh, to be 24 again!” reacting to my “spontaneous overflow of powerful, emotions”.  My Romantic heart sunk as I replied, “Oh, to be 45 and lack any inspiration?  How tragic?”  Yet, I am seeing this tragedy in my peers and it frightens me.  It is World War III, people.  The end is near.
    I felt as if I was riding the coattails of the horseman of the apocalypse as I read several of the in-your-face political journal entries of my peers this semester;  the power of the written and spoken word was everywhere!  There was no denying that politics were everywhere--especially during this, an election year.  Yet, I am not interested in political views, personal opinions, bla, bla, bla.  If I want to know current events, I can watch Fox News; they seem to know what is going on, right?  They know the truth with a capital “T”.  The Romantic writer John Keats said, “Beauty is truth and truth is beauty”.  Is news beautiful?  I think that the news is ugly.
    Interestingly, the political rhetoric of English 300 did inspire me to express my own beliefs on the topic of cultural diversity.  I felt like I was using rhetoric successfully, yet I really was not saying anything new and my writing was uninspiring.  On a positive note, writing about my opinions did prompt me to look deeper into the difference between rhetoric and expression.  The key word is the difference between the two, not necessarily, if one is better than the other.
    Personally, I would like to stay away from reading and writing highly charged political rhetoric because it stifles my ability to create new and inspiring ideas.  That is not to say that I do not recognize the power of political rhetoric.  I realize that this type of writing allowed me to come to grips with what I believe.  However, I am interested in getting a little deeper than mere beliefs and opinions.
    What I suggest is that we take a step back from the rhetoric and take a step inside what is driving us to plaster our political beliefs and passions in writing.  Are we writing to inspire or to inflame?  Throughout history, words have caused wars as well as settled them.  One person says, “This is my land and I have a really sanctified argument as to why!”  Yet, the result is two sides involved in a deep-rooted conflict that has affected each of us personally, beginning with the twin towers falling on our soil.  Think about the power of rhetoric; cherish it.  Yet, be hesitant.  Words are much more powerful than you may think.  They can cause you to lead the well-lived life or the exact opposite.  Too much of a good thing is not always good!
    I think that we need to look at the individual as an intertextual study of inspiration.  After all, living, breathing human beings penned the books I so cherish!   Below is a passage that I think gets at the very heart of the idea of people as “communal books”.  This passage was actually the inspiration for this paper on the well-lived life because it sums up what a full life contains.  In the passage, there is an illusion of the mapping of life experiences that are marked upon the human soul as lines drawn on maps.  This mapping, like writing, is universal and is not contained solely within books.  In addition, it celebrates the differences of our experiences. It is from the main character Almasy of The English Patient:

“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography--to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience.”

Lord of the Rings must be on the list because Tolkien created a grand mythology, which is multi-faceted, inspirational, and incorporates the human myth as well as Norse and Celtic mythology.

Tolkien’s tale is multi-faceted.  It is not just a story about elves and fairies; it is directly connected to the human myth.  Many critics have scorned the trilogy as mere escapism, but Tolkien saw it as discovered reality, that his mythmaking was an attempt to uncover what is real in the clearest way possible: “true myth”.(1)

Tolkien’s inspiration came from Norse and Celtic mythology.  Tolken infused The Lord of the Rings with the physical and spiritual conflict evident in “Beowulf”.  The names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit were derived from Iceland’s “Poetic Edda”.  The hero of the Finnish “Kalevala”, a 19th century compilation of old Finnish ballads and poems, is a wise old shaman named Vainamoinen, who has a flowing beard and magical powers, reminiscent of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.  The major theme in Sir Gawain and the Green Night, resisting temptation, is also a major plot device and theme in The Lord of the Rings.(2)

Through his novel, Tolkein proved that myth is a timeless product of man’s internal search for meaning.

___________________________________________
1.  http://www.leaderu.com/focus/tolkien.html
2.  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/myth.html#inspire