'The Politics of Amnesia' by Terry Eagleton

A departure from the last two pieces, this is first of all a book, not an article and has a stronger constitution. As Paul pointed out, the other two pieces are like mutations of theory, this however is more serious. Eagletons approach is immediatley more philosophical, he talks about ideas and ways of thinking rather than general happenings and occurences in modern day life. Indeed this chapter is about that very thing. The state of theory today, how we got here and where we are going.
Theory obviously develops with time as we learn from our predecessors, what Eagleton is saying is that currently we arent really making the leaps and bounds in cultural theory and thinking that have been made up until recently and that current theoretical thinking has strayed to popular and philisophically thin subject matters. I tend to agree with him, not that I know that much about the great theorists before us, but the world does seem to be a quagmire of consumerism and indulgence more than ever before. On the other hand he argues that never before have we been so liberated in our cultural theory and I think thats the point where are we and where are we going.



http://www.scribd.com/doc/13652422/Politics-of-Amnesia-Terry-Eagleton