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All Propaganda Or Popularization Involves A Putting Of The Complex Into The Simple, But Such A Move Is Instantly Deconstructive. For If The Complex Can Be Put Into The Simple, Then It Cannot Be As Complex As It Seemed In The First Place; And If The Simple Can Be An Adequate Medium Of Such Complexity, Then It Cannot After All Be As Simple As All That.

-Terry Eagleton

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All Propaganda Or Popularization

Terry Eagleton

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All Propaganda Or Popularization Involves A Putting Of The Complex Into The Simple, But Such A Move Is Instantly Deconstructive. For If The Complex Can Be Put Into The Simple, Then It Cannot Be As Complex As It Seemed In The First Place; And If The Simple Can Be An Adequate Medium Of Such Complexity, Then It Cannot After All Be As Simple As All That.

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I Say That Virtue Is Really All About Enjoying Yourself, Living Fully; But Of Course It Is Far From Obvious What Living Fully Actually Means.

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Irish Fiction Is Full Of Secrets, Guilty Pasts, Divided Identities. It Is No Wonder That There Is Such A Rich Tradition Of Gothic Writing In A Nation So Haunted By History.

Language, Identity And Forms Of Life Are The Terms In Which Political Demands Are Shaped And Voiced.

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Literary Theory

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I Value My Catholic Background Very Much. It Taught Me Not To Be Afraid Of Rigorous Thought, For One Thing.

Most Poetry In The Modern Age Has Retreated To The Private Sphere, Turning Its Back On The Political Realm.

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Literature Transforms And Intensifies Ordinary Language, Deviates Systematically From Everyday Speech. If You Approach Me At A Bus Stop And Murmur Thou Still Unravished Bride Of Quietness, Then I Am Instantly Aware That I Am In The Presence Of The Literary.

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The British Are Supposed To Be Particularly Averse To Intellectuals, A Prejudice Closely Bound Up With Their Dislike Of Foreigners. Indeed, One Important Source Of This Anglo-saxon Distaste For Highbrows And Eggheads Was The French Revolution, Which Was Seen As An Attempt To Reconstruct Society On The Basis Of Abstract Rational Principles.

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Literary Theory

Schizophrenic Language Has In This Sense An Interesting Resemblance To Poetry.

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The Most Common Mistake Students Of Literature Make Is To Go Straight For What The Poem Or Novel Says, Setting Aside The Way That It Says It. To Read Like This Is To Set Aside The ‘literariness’ Of The Work – The Fact That It Is A Poem Or Play Or Novel, Rather Than An Account Of The Incidence Of Soil Erosion In Nebraska.

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The Kantian Imperative To Have The Courage To Think For Oneself Has Involved A Contemptuous Disregard For The Resources Of Tradition And An Infantile View Of Authority As Inherently Oppressive.

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As Far As Belief Goes, Postmodernism Prefers To Travel Light: It Has Beliefs, To Be Sure, But It Does Not Have Faith

All Consciousness Is Consciousness Of Something: In Thinking I Am Aware That My Thought Is 'pointing Towards' Some Object.

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Universities Are No Longer Educational In Any Sense Of The Word That Rousseau Would Have Recognised. Instead, They Have Become Unabashed Instruments Of Capital. Confronted With This Squalid Betrayal, One Imagines He Would Have Felt Sick And Oppressed.

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You Can Tell That The Capitalist System Is In Trouble When People Start Talking About Capitalism.

Literary Theory

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