The Theoretical Construct Of Eagleton’s Body Discourse

Terry Eagleton has long been known for his ideological criticism in the international academic community. Scholars both at home and abroad also begin to know about his cognition of body discourse because body is repeatedly mentioned and discussed with lots of space in many of his writings although scattered. Though Terry Eagleton himself did not form his body discourses into a well-structured theoretical system, it’s not only a theoretical research in one respect, but also an important task to enrich and perfect the theoretical system of body for us to summarize and systemize these theories. At present, there is no complete system for Eagleton’s body discourse theory, but only some chapters and articles in the academic community both at home and abroad. Therefore, the thesis aims to construct the theory of Eagleton’s body discourse.The thesis sums up the wise points of body discourse scattered in Eagleton’s writings with the method of analysis and synthesis. The first part of the paper expounds the possibility and necessity of constructing Eagleton’s body discourse from these three points:the relations of the body and aesthetic, ideology; the role of body in postmodern; body as the foundation of "common culture". The second part tells the sources of Eagleton’s body discourse which comes form Max, Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud.The third part will summarize the connotations of Eagleton’s body discourse.And last, the part of the conclusion will discuss the significance and limitations of Eagleton’s body discourse.This work will make up the systematic construction of Eagleton’s body discourse, improve the overall research of Eagleton’s theory, and also enrich the thriving research data of body discourse.