English - Critic | February 22, 1943 -
Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm.
Terry Eagleton
AgePoetryPoliticalBackModern
It is true that too much belief can be bad for your health.
HealthBadToo MuchTrueBeliefToo
Cynicism and naivety lie cheek by jowl in the American imagination; if the United States is one of the most venal nations on Earth, it is also one of the most earnestly idealistic.
ImaginationLieAmericanEarthMost
Americans use the word 'dream' as often as psychoanalysts do.
DreamWordUseOften
The political currents that topped the global agenda in the late 20th century - revolutionary nationalism, feminism and ethnic struggle - place culture at their heart.
HeartCultureStrugglePolitical
We face a conflict between civilisation and culture, which used to be on the same side. Civilisation means rational reflection, material wellbeing, individual autonomy and ironic self-doubt; culture means a form of life that is customary, collective, passionate, spontaneous, unreflective and irrational.
LifeReflectionCultureConflict
Men and women do not easily submit to a power that does not weave itself into the texture of their daily existence - one reason why culture remains so politically vital. Civilisation cannot get on with culture, and it cannot get on without it.
WomenDailyPowerCultureMenWhy
Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will.
PoetryGrowDuckYearWillMore
With fiction, you can talk about plot, character and narrative, whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.
WorkHomeCharacterLanguageYou
Most students of literature can pick apart a metaphor or spot an ethnic stereotype, but not many of them can say things like: 'The poem's sardonic tone is curiously at odds with its plodding syntax.'
LiteratureSayOddsToneThings
There is an insuperable problem about introducing immigrants to British values. There are no British values. Nor are there any Serbian or Peruvian values. No nation has a monopoly on fairness and decency, justice and humanity.
JusticeProblemHumanityValues
From the viewpoint of political power, culture is absolutely vital. So vital, indeed, that power cannot operate without it. It is culture, in the sense of the everyday habits and beliefs of a people, which beds power down, makes it appear natural and inevitable, turns it into spontaneous reflex and response.
PowerCulturePeoplePoliticalDown
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Terry Eagleton quotes