The Event of Literature

Eagleton (English literature, Univ. of Lancaster, UK; Literary Theory: An Introduction) has changed his mind about whether literature can be defined. He previously thought it could not be, but he now thinks his former view rested on the dubious nominalist assumption that universals are mere words. Now he seeks to assess literature as written, read, and judged across the spectrum of its active life. Eagleton suggests a number of characteristics common to literary works: literature is "fictional, valuable, richly figurative, non-pragmatic and morally significant." These characteristics are not invariably present in every literary work and, when present, they vary historically and culturally. Eagleton has here been influenced by Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblances, which, following Stanley Cavell, he takes to be a search for essences rather than a rejection of definition altogether. After discussing each of the characteristics, Eagleton asks whether theories of literature, such as structuralism, semiotics, and phenomenology, have common features. Here again he finds useful the notion of family resemblances. He suggests that theories, like works of literature itself, are strategies to try to understand a world that resists such understanding.