A Preliminary Study of Terry Eagleton’s Ideological Criticism

王麗

I Introduction

We know， as a general rule， Eagleton is regarded as one of the influential British Marxist literature theorists and his most enduring contribution is no other than the systematical and insightful investigation into the concept of ideology. Based on absorbing and summarizing the results of predecessors theory， it is possible to demonstrate that this is the elementary principle which therein guides the extrapolation to distinguish from the essential to the accidental， which is both highly relevant and extremely difficult.

II An Exposition of Terry Eagletons Ideological Conception

It is reasonable to assume that the initiation of Terry Eagletons own literary critical theory plays an ancillary role in his investigation of traditional approaches to literature. Starting with the fundamental and programmatic question of “what is literature”， which highlights the reduction of literature to its ontological being， and extend the scope of the self-consistent description.

From a practical viewpoint， he opposes not only the view of ideology as the center but also that of ideology as the terminator. This specific point of view in literature emerges in its clear and undeniable form by the enumeration of splendid examples. Typically， it is because his unique consciousness of two theories that exerts far-reaching influence on his ideological conception.

Once the theoretical position is in place， the conception of ideology will evolve into efficient vehicle of its realization. It seems likely that the concept of ideology is taken a seemingly invariable position in contemporary western literary criticism， which provides a rigorous characterization for the realism and makes his potential theory be identical with the relevant node in its various manifestations.

Just so its relevant node clicks into place， its highest latent content is the combination of structuralism theory as well as the perfect interpretation of Freuds psychoanalysis. In this regard， he sets out a complete schematization of ideological theory and shows a subtle penetration into the way the inherent tension of ideological criticism should be realized.

III An Overview of Terry Eagletons Ideological Criticism

Since the object of literary theory is proven to be an ideology， then literary theory itself， as its fullest conceptual value， must also be ideologically-motivated. A case in point is that ideology is not absolute negation of artificial ideology but the category in exploration of right and wrong.endprint

To carry the weight of ideological criticism， Terry Eagleton makes a genuine attempt to point out that ideology is not only a belief hidden in the sub consciousness of people in order to dominate human behavior， but also as a real thoughts to undertake the important role of maintaining the social power structure.

It has been widely assumed that his influence has passed into the specific concept in rationality and the profundity of aesthetic， and substantially， his standpoint will attain its simplest form by building on no other his judgment than those necessarily required by preliminary inference.

It is hardly unnecessary to do this in order to demonstrate that it his argument based on above-mentioned analysis draws forth the political criticism， in that it is flexible enough to make room for development of the aesthetic and the ideology. On balance， many features of Eagletons theory of ideology， reflect its further comprehensive theory of predecessors， expand and deepen the keen consciousness of methods as well.

IV Conclusion

It naturally brings me to the conclusion that Terry Eagletons addresses primarily that the dialectical concept should be generalized from the comprehensive and integral perspective. It is why the literature bears full witness to Terry Eagletons assertion that all criticism is in a political sense.

References：

[1]伊格爾頓.審美意識形態[M].王杰等，譯.桂林：廣西師范大學出版社，2000：26.endprint