Terry Eagleton's work has had a powerful influence in debates about the politics of literature and culture. This book reflects the breadth of his interests. It offers a view of his career to date, raising a number of central issues in literature, culture and politics.

Introduction, Michael Payne and M.A.R.Habib; The significance of theory, Terry Eagleton; art after Auschwitz - Adorno's political aesthetics Terry Eagleton; criticism, ideology, and fiction, Terry Eagleton and Michael Payne.

Terry Eagleton's work has had a powerful influence in debates about the politics of literature and culture. His writings have had a marked impact too on how these subjects are taught and studied. Always maintaining a clear sense of political goal, his work has ranged widely in subject and in method. This book reflects the breadth of his interests. It offers a view of his career to date, raising a number of central issues in literature, culture and politics. It includes a discussion of the nature and function of literary theory today, and in a major new essay on Adorno, offers a glimpse of Eagleton's current work on the contradictory status of art in modern society and the relations between the aesthetic and the political.