Eagleton, Deconstruction Study

Eagleton is honored as a well-known Marxian aesthetician and a cultural theorist in the western country and his contributions to the fields of literature and aesthetics are very great. The author, however, holds the view that Eagleton is a warrior with the profound thought of deconstruction, which is a main stem in the course of his thoughts. His thinking of deconstruction --- persevering --- construction --- re-deconstruction is reflected in every aspect, from the literary essence, literary criticism and literary theory in literary field to the cultural conception, cultural criticism and cultural theory in cultural field. With the sustainment of this thought of deconstruction, Eagleton's theory is full of innovation and vitality and he is always ahead of time. First, Eagleton's thought of deconstruction eliminates authority and absoluteness in a fully open stance and breaks the traditional thinking mode. Second, his thought is embodied in the subversion and surmounting to the hierarchical system and dual opposition, and in his sense of common people and democratic ideas as well. Certainly, his deconstruction does not only include criticism and elimination, it has the sense of re-construction in a higher level. Eagleton's deconstruction to the empty and hypocrisy of deconstructivism is the sublimation of his thought. Although he never clearly declares himself to be a deconstructivist, his thought reflects the essence of deconstruction and his deconstruction is embodied in the specific criticism and practice. The body of this paper is divided into 8 chapters, discussing how Eagleton's thought of deconstruction is integrated into the specific theory and critical practice.Chapter one:"Essence"of LiteratureIn Literary Theory, Eagleton clearly puts forward"literature does not have essence","the essence of literature does not exit". He eliminates the essence of literature from the aspects of ontology and functionalism. But, Eagleton's deconstruction to the essence of literature is not equal to his separation from"literature", does not represent his deconstruction of the stable relationship between signifier and signified in literature and does not mean that he comprehends literature as a frolic of signifier and a formal revelry. What Eagleton deconstructs is the essentialism and monism. The elimination is not the purpose, then, he gives another literary definition --- literary ideology. In his opinion, the production of the literary text includes a complicated ideological relationship, and then, this literary text is also full of ideology. What's more, he still thinks that the literary text is endowed with ideological value through revealing this complicated ideological relationship. So, this definition is more open and more dynamic and it enlightens us to analyze literature from different aspects, different directions and different levels.Chapter two: The Form of LiteratureEagleton's"View of Intrinsic Form"deconstructs the dual opposition between the form and the function in traditional literature and abandons the rigid rules about which is the first nature and which is the second. This object of deconstruction includes vulgar sociology and formalism literary theory. Actually, the function and the form always integrate into each other. The profundity of Eagleton's thought lies in that he admits the self-discipline of literary form and he also shows us how literary form represents the ideology. We should learn from this method. For example, many domestic scholars'theories like"Formal Sociology"and"Formal Aesthetics"inherit and continue his thought very well.Chapter three: From Theory of Reflection and Creationism to Theory of ProductionThe literary theory of reflection is used to studying the static text and examining the relationship between text and society with the focus of the author and the works, therefore, it is obviously mechanical, unilateral and static. While, the traditional creationism emphasizes the decisive role the creation subject plays in the course of literary creation and the importance and mystique of the writer's own talent. As a result, its idealistic position is not scientific. The bringing up of the theory of production deconstructs this kind of immobility and mystique. Although literary theory of production is not originated by Eagleton, he offers new content and more profound comprehension to this thought in comparison, estimation and re-definition of category. His"Six Categories"reveals the dynamic procedural features of the literary production and the universal relations between existence and consciousness, base and superstructure, subject and object. With the rapid development of socialism commodity economy, the literature is getting more and more attentions as a product and commodity nature, and then, Eagleton's new literary theory of production offers valuable theory resource to our research. Chapter four: Pure Literary Criticism.In the western philosophical world, there is a deep-rooted focus and idea, the traditional logocentrism, which has a great influence on the field of literary criticism. When surveying the literary criticism in the 20th century, we find that it follows the traditional model of pursuing the literary center, noumenon and source. This is pure literary criticism. Each critical school chases the eternal characteristic and universal law of literature as the golden rule. We can say that the 20th century is the century delimiting the boundary and pursuing the noumenon. In accordance with his position of political criticism, Eagleton implements a great"project of deconstruction"to these schools of pure literary criticism. Just like what he says, the pure literary criticism is like a nail, it is easy to nail tight, while our task is to dig out these so-called invariable and fixed nails. Another characteristic of pure literary criticism is formalism, which separates works from the society, the writers, the readers and the history. The focus of this kind of criticism is on the form of the literature. This model makes the research methods of literature sole and narrow and even seriously blocks the development of literary criticism. What Eagleton enlightens us is to deconstruct the pure literary criticism and turn to literary cultural criticism, which derives mental, social and cultural methods of criticism on the basis of literature and finally directs to the critical model of literature. Psychological analysis and Feminism are the first attempt of this method. Eagleton's way, from literary criticism to literary cultural criticism, realizes the deconstruction to the pure literary criticism and the construction of cultural criticism. This is another opportunity after sublating literary criticism logos and literary formalism. This sublating also makes criticism multiplicity and synthesis.Chapter five: Pure Literary Theory.Eagleton deconstructs the pure literary theory according to the logic deduction. In his opinion, the pure literature does not exist, either does pure literary criticism. Then, the literary theory in the higher level is rootless. He also points out that the definition of any theory is in accordance with its special research method or its special object. When regarding to literary theory, however, these two levels do not have uniqueness and exclusiveness. The deconstruction to pure literary theory does not mean its end. In the course of deconstruction, Eagleton gives us a lot of constructive enlightenment. He tries to build the bridge between text and culture in the way of literature and inspect the field of culture with the involvement of literature or ponder of literature. All these attempts are of significance.Chapter six: Culture.Culture is one of the most complicated conceptions in the field of humanities at present, while Eagleton's explanation of culture keeps his thinking of deconstruction. He takes an example of the definition of symbolic culture in the development of history and points out that it is impossible to define culture objectively and completely. The purpose of Eagleton's deconstruction is to tell us to study some meaningful fields, for instance, to explore the questions like the characteristics of culture, the functions of culture, why study culture and cross-culture, and etc. Maybe these topics are of more practical significance. The deconstruction to Pan-Culturalism reflects Eagleton's care about the reality and his position of political criticism. He points out that pan-culturalism is actually the representation of the political shrinkage and cultural radicalism influenced by postmodernism. The flooding of culture also makes the culture become the political accomplice and refuge to some extent. So, we should be on guard against the cultural scheme and bravely face with the actual political problems. The initiation of common culture expresses Eagleton's sense of common people and democracy. The common culture not only represents the relationship between culture and society, but also implicates the relationship between people. Regarding to socialism, to initiate common culture is to initiate all the people into the richness and creation of culture and emphasize that all the people enjoy the culture together. This is the representation of the progress of culture and the democracy of politics.Chapter seven: Culture of Postmodernism.As a theorist born and lived in the postmodern society, Eagleton's opinions could not be separated from the postmodern problems. He tries his best to eliminate the foundation of postmodernism through analyzing the various contradictions existing in the culture of postmodernism. He would like to ask people to wake up from the dream of postmodernism and concern with the urgent realistic problems. Eagleton deconstructs the contradictions of postmodernism by deconstructing groups of paradoxes like authority of counter-authority, fragmentary subject, historicity of non-historicism and tradition of radicalism. As the main power of postmodernism is deconstructivism, the deconstruction to the contradictions of postmodernism is the deconstruction to deconstructivism from the essence. This kind of deconstruction represents the profundity of Eagleton's thought.Chapter eight: Theory.It seems that the gold time and prosperous time of literary theory and cultural theory has passed, however, Eagleton's After Theory seems to discuss the matters after theory. Do we really not need theory? Does the theory lose its charm in our time? The answer is no. Eagleton just reminds us that the present theory has a tendency of empty and separating from the fact. What he actually deconstructs is the tendency of highly elite and institutionalization of theory. Actually, as long as it is necessary for human beings to think, the theory would not vanish. The theory is continuing its vitality in different ways in the present context. We should face with the ups and downs in the development of theory with positive attitude. This is what Eagleton enlightens us.