RISE OF ENGLISH AS AN

ACADEMIC SUBJECT

Rise of English
- Terry Eagleton
Course Code: ENG 302
Course title: Literary Theory and Criticism: The
Classics

Presented by:
Faysal Ahmed ID no: 15116016
Third Year, First Semester
Department of English
University of Asia Pacific

Presented to:
Mrs. Sharifa Akter
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Asia Pacific
Outline
• About Terry Eagleton
• Rise of English as an Academic
Subject
• Conclusion
• My Assessment
• Reference
TERRY EAGLETON
Terence Francis "Terry" Eagleton

• Born in Salford, England on 22 February, 1943.

• British literary theorist, critic and public intellectual.

• Authored a number of theological articles and a book

called towards a new left theory.
Major works
 Literary Theory : An Introduction

 After Theory

 Criticism and Ideology

 The Ideology of the Aesthetics (1990)

 The Gate Keeper (2001) memoir

 Sweet Violence (2003)

Rise of English as an Academic Subject
• The rise of literature began in 18th century
England.
• English first started to gain traction while 17th
century England recovered from a civil war that
“set the social classes at each other’s throats.”

• Literature became dislocated from everyday

social life.

• It became capable of being analysed and was

given a raised status.

• Failure of religion was the single most important

reason for the growth of English studies.
 Literature is ideology; it’s intimately related to social
power. It could be argued that it seized the territory
forfeited by religion.

 By mid-Victorian period, religion’s dominance was

waning. Scientific discovery and social change were
undermining it.

 English Literature became an alternative for religion in

guiding people and replaced it.
 Literature helps to promote sympathy and fellow
feeling among all classes.

 It was thought that it also had the power to elevate

the minds of the lower classes by communicating to
them the moral riches of bourgeois civilization, and
make them more peace loving.

 Like religion, literature works primarily by emotion

and experience, and so was well-fitted to carry
through the ideological task which religion left off.
 According to Eliot, the duty of the poet is to
discard the touch of personality in his work:
and as a result a new form will come out from
the fusion of the past and the present.

 A poet may have personal liking, disliking or

may fell interested in anything, but he should
not put it into his poetry.
 English was first taught in workers’
colleges and the emphasis was on
solidarity, morality, and national pride.

 Morality shifts from a code of ethics to

a patterns of living; it becomes
dramatized/ritualized, not codified.
Conclusion
 English was literally the poor man's Classics, a
way of providing an education for those who
would never attend public schools and Oxford or
Cambridge.

The emphasis within English studies was on

solidarity between the social classes, national
pride, and moral values.
 It was hoped English would prevent any social
unrest..

 Failure of religion played a major role for English

to be established as an academic subject.
My assessment
 In the 21st century, English and the humanities
are in the position of justifying their existence in
universities and proving their worth in an
environment that equates the university with the
marketplace.

 We find ourselves in the position of arguing all

over again why literature and English studies
matter. Looking at the history of English studies,
we see that it is a complex and intellectually
demanding discipline which has a place beyond
the �marketplace�.
 Reference
• Internet

• Respective books

• Honorable course teacher’s notes and lectures

Any Questions??
THANK YOU!!!