BALTIC+

Culture

Culture
Library Shelf Location 05a.EAGL
Publication Date 24 May 2016
Description


Notes

  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-168) and index.

Contents

  • Culture and civilisation -- Postmodern prejudices -- The social unconscious -- An apostle of culture -- From Herder to Hollywood -- Conclusion: the hubris of culture.

Summary

  • 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.
  • Review: "An impressive display of erudition."-Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Biography

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

 

ISBN 9780300218794
Quantity 1
Pages ix, 177 pages ; 22 cm.
Author Terry Eagleton
Format Hardback
Publisher Yale University Press, New Haven and London
Category Philosophy
Keywords Culture, Theory
Artist's Nationality British/UK
Language English

Other Artists

Other Recent Books