Eagleton traces the discipline's rise through influential movements and figures, such as:
Eagleton argues that literature is not a neutral or objective category. Key themes include: Terry eagleton the rise of english pdf
Eagleton begins by tracing the emergence of "English" to the decline of religious authority in the Victorian era. As traditional Christianity lost its grip on the working class due to the pressures of the Industrial Revolution and scientific advancement, the British ruling class faced an ideological crisis. He saw English as a last bastion against "mass civilisation
F.R. Leavis and Scrutiny magazine solidified English as the "central" discipline. Leavis was a moralist, not a revolutionary. He saw English as a last bastion against "mass civilisation." Eagleton critiques Leavis for being elitist and politically naive, arguing that Leavis’s "great tradition" of Austen, Eliot, James, and Lawrence was merely the taste of the provincial middle class masquerading as universal judgment. It is a battlefield of values.
In an era of culture wars, debates over the canon, and the financialization of the humanities, Eagleton’s 40-year-old essay is more relevant than ever. It teaches us that the syllabus is never neutral. It is a battlefield of values.