Decent summary of some strands of Marxist thought about literature. The last chapter, which is detailed and primarily about Brecht, is fascinating. Suffers from its length and its refusal to define what Marxist literary criticism *is* - it doesn't talk about anything past the Second World War, leaving a pretty huge gap. Refers often to what Marx/Engels/Lenin/Trotsky thought but doesn't really describe the details much at all. What he does describe leaves their thoughts sounding pretty basic - what I got from it is mostly "they thought literature should expose contradictions in society", but it's hedged with a lot of "but"s that don't really pin it down. This isn't to say it's not interesting or even good, but I don't feel much better informed about Marxist criticism in general, outside of the excellent stuff about Brecht's ideas. ( )

This was a clear and lucid introduction to Terry Eagleton's discussion of Marxist theory. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in either thinker. ( )

This was a clear and lucid introduction to Terry Eagleton's discussion of Marxist theory. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in either thinker. ( )

I've been revisiting my old college textbooks lately, looking for new ways to think about books. Eagleton's "Marxism and Literary Criticism" is as good a place to start this sort of project as any. He writes clearly and comprehensibly, which, considering the subject matter, might be an achievement in itself. He gives a pretty good rundown of the theorists who've made important contributions to this field and emphasizes the complexity -- the multiple levels of interpretation -- of any sort of serious literary analysis. I can't really judge if his efforts are successful, but he seems to work pretty hard to stay away from the overly systematic analysis that he -- and a lot of other latter-day Marxists -- disdainfully refer to as "vulgar Marxism." A few criticisms: Eagleton's history of literary criticism, which, until Stalin came around anyway, might which admittedly seems more liberal than I would have assumed, smacks of academic score-settling. Also, this isn't the place to go for an explanation of really thorny theoretical issues: this brief volume does, however, point readers in the general direction of Benjamin, Brecht, and others. A relative newcomer to literary theory is likely to find something in here of value in here, though. ( )

I don't know what Eagleton has done to rattle kettle666's bars - this is no raving polemic but a dispassionate review of a common literary theory and its major theorists. A good summary for undergraduate study.