Terry Eagleton NLB Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary CriticismFirst published, 1981 Verso Eultions and NLB, 15 Greek Stret, London Wr Fitmset in Monophoto Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Lad, Manchester Manufactured in the United States of Ameria British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Eagleton, Terry Walter Benjamin, or, ‘Towards a revolutionary 1, Benjamin, Walter ~ Criticism and interpretation 1. Tite i Boras PT2603. E455 ISBN o-86091-09649 ISBN 0-86091-733-9 Pbk Contents Note Preface ONE Walter Ben; 1/The Baroque Allegory = 2/Aura and Commodity © 3/History, Tradition and Revolution amin TWO Towards a Revolutionary Criticism 1/'Marxist Criticism’ 2/A Small History of Rhetoric 3/On Textuality 4/Marxism and Deconstruction 3/Carnival and Comedy: Bakhtin and Brecht 6/The Angel of History Homage to Walter Benjamin Index ix xi 181 185Deny to working-class children any ‘common share in the immaterial, and presently they will grow into the men ‘who demand with menacesa communism oo the materia Sir Henry Newbolt; Government report on The Teaching of English in Enel, 192 [Coral history} may well increase the burden ofthe treasures that are piled up ‘on humanity's back. But it does not give ‘mankind thestrengthtoshake them of, so as to get its hands on them, Walter Benjamin, Eduard Pucks, Col ‘and Historian