April 4, 2025 - English Studies

“In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy: A Critical Analysis

“In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy first appeared in her 1990 poetry collection The Other Country.

Introduction: “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

“In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy first appeared in her 1990 poetry collection The Other Country. This evocative poem explores the innocence of childhood and the transitional moment between childhood security and the unsettling onset of adolescence. Set in a primary school classroom, it is popular for its nostalgic tone, vivid imagery, and emotional resonance. Duffy captures the enchantment of learning—”The classroom glowed like a sweet shop”—and the comforting figure of Mrs Tilscher, whose love and attention (“Mrs Tilscher loved you”) provide a safe haven from the darker realities of the outside world, such as the fleeting reference to “Brady and Hindley.” The poem’s power lies in its gradual shift from the imaginative safety of school—tracing the Blue Nile with a finger, the smell of pencils, the thrill of gold stars—to the confusion and awakening of adolescence, symbolized by the question of birth and the “heavy, sexy sky” of July. Its popularity stems from Duffy’s ability to universalize personal memory and chart emotional growth with lyrical precision and sensory detail.

Text: “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.
That for an hour, then a skittle of milk
and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.
A window opened with a long pole.
The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.

This was better than home. Enthralling books.
The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.
Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley
faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.
Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found
she’d left a good gold star by your name.
The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.
A xylophone’s nonsense heard from another form.

Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles changed
from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs
hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce,
followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking
away from the lunch queue. A rough boy
told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared
at your parents, appalled, when you got back home.

That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.
A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,
fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her
how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled,
then turned away. Reports were handed out.
You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown,
as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.

Annotations: “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

Line	Annotation
🗺️ You could travel up the Blue Nile	Imaginative journey—childhood curiosity sparked by learning.
👆 with your finger, tracing the route	Tactile engagement—innocent, playful interaction with maps.
🎶 while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.	Teacher’s voice as rhythmic, reassuring presence.
📍 Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.	Foreign places—education opening doors to the wider world.
🥛 That for an hour, then a skittle of milk	Childhood routine—sweet simplicity and comfort.
🏜️ and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.	Ephemeral knowledge—chalk erased like fading memories.
🪟 A window opened with a long pole.	Controlled freedom—structure within liberty.
🔔 The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.	Joyous soundscape—childhood energy and innocence.
📚 This was better than home. Enthralling books.	School as a sanctuary—where imagination flourishes.
🍬 The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.	Simile—wonder and vibrant appeal of early school life.
⚠️ Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley	Juxtaposition—darkness briefly invades childhood purity.
✏️ faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.	Simile—disturbing realities suppressed in safe spaces.
❤️ Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found	Emotional warmth—teacher’s care and affection.
⭐ she’d left a good gold star by your name.	Praise and motivation—small rewards with great impact.
✂️ The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.	Sensory nostalgia—conjures atmosphere of focused innocence.
🎼 A xylophone’s nonsense heard from another form.	Background sounds—cacophony of youth, playful chaos.
🐸 Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles changed	Transformation—symbol of puberty and natural growth.
‼️ from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs	Metaphor—childhood punctuation evolving with self-awareness.
🎒 hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce,	Misrule and play—freedom in the hands of the mischievous.
👣 followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking	Mimicry and laughter—shared innocence and fun.
👦 away from the lunch queue. A rough boy	Reality intrudes—beginning of exposure to adult themes.
😲 told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared	Shock of knowledge—first confrontation with sexuality.
🏠 at your parents, appalled, when you got back home.	Disillusionment—loss of trust in parental simplicity.
⚡ That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.	Tension rising—sensual awakening, emotional turbulence.
🚨 A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,	Physical symptoms of change—puberty’s discomfort.
🌩️ fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her	Confusion and desire—transition from innocence to awareness.
🙂 how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled,	Gentle ambiguity—adult kindness tinged with distance.
📄 then turned away. Reports were handed out.	Closure—marking the end of the childhood phase.
🏃 You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown,	Forward-looking—desire for adulthood and independence.
🌧️ as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.	Symbolic ending—loss of innocence, entry into complexity.

Literary And Poetic Devices: “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

Device with Symbol	Example from Poem	Explanation
❓ Ambiguity	“how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away”	Suggests both the child’s curiosity and the adult’s gentle refusal to explain—inviting multiple interpretations.
🎵 Assonance	“This was better than home.”	Repetition of vowel sounds (e.g., ‘e’) adds musicality and reinforces the warmth and comfort of school.
⏸️ Caesura	“Brady and Hindley / faded”	A pause (implicit or marked by punctuation) breaks the rhythm, mirroring emotional disruption caused by disturbing knowledge.
⚖️ Contrast	“Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley.”	Juxtaposition of childlike imagery with names of real-life criminals shocks and highlights the fragility of innocence.
🗣️ Direct Address	“Mrs Tilscher loved you.”	Use of second-person “you” pulls the reader into the memory, making the experience personal and immediate.
➡️ Enjambment	“the inky tadpoles changed / from commas into exclamation marks.”	A line flowing into the next mirrors natural speech and the fluid process of growth.
🖼️ Imagery	“The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.”	Vivid visual description evokes sensory delight and the magical atmosphere of early schooling.
📅 Metaphor	“The inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks.”	Represents the children’s transformation during puberty—subtle and symbolic.
⚡ Mood	“the air tasted of electricity”	The atmosphere shifts from safe to tense—reflecting internal emotional change.
📣 Onomatopoeia	“The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.”	The word “laugh” mimics sound, enriching the auditory experience of the poem.
💫 Personification	“The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.”	The classroom is given human qualities to emphasize warmth and joy.
✏️ Repetition	“Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.”	Repeating place names mimics chanting and highlights the hypnotic effect of learning.
📍 Setting	“A window opened with a long pole.”	Describes a specific classroom detail, grounding the poem in real, relatable school life.
🧠 Sensory Imagery	“The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.”	Appeals to the sense of smell, evoking memory and creating intimacy.
🌩️ Symbolism	“as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.”	The storm symbolizes the chaotic transition into adolescence and the end of innocence.
🔁 Tone Shift	From “Enthralling books” to “Brady and Hindley faded…”	The shift in tone from wonder to unease mirrors the speaker’s emotional and developmental change.
✨ Simile	“The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.”	A direct comparison using “like” to create vivid imagery of delight and fascination.
🔍 Theme	Growth, innocence, and transition	Central themes include the safe space of education and the inevitable journey into adulthood.
🧒 Voice (Childlike Perspective)	Entire poem narrated in second person with childlike lens	Captures the innocence, wonder, and confusion of a child moving toward adolescence.

Themes: “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

🌱 1. Innocence and Safety of Childhood

Carol Ann Duffy lovingly captures the safe cocoon of early childhood, where the classroom becomes a sanctuary from the outside world. The poem opens with imaginative play—“You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger”—signifying the wonder and security of guided learning. The teacher, Mrs. Tilscher, is a nurturing figure who “loved you,” offering gold stars and creating an environment where “the classroom glowed like a sweet shop”. The use of sensory imagery, like “The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved,” reinforces the comforting routine of school. This theme celebrates the protected world of childhood before the intrusion of external complexities.

🌩️ 2. The Loss of Innocence and Coming of Age

As the poem progresses, the joyful innocence gradually gives way to the confusion and intensity of adolescence. The reference to “Brady and Hindley”—infamous child murderers—is unsettlingly placed among colorful imagery, symbolizing the creeping presence of dark realities. Puberty and sexual awakening appear in metaphors such as “the inky tadpoles changed / from commas into exclamation marks”, symbolizing bodily and emotional transformation. The climax of this shift occurs when the speaker recalls asking how they were born, and “Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away”, marking the limits of childhood explanations. The storm at the end—“as the sky split open into a thunderstorm”—visually and symbolically marks the breaking of innocence.

📚 3. The Transformative Power of Education

The poem celebrates education as a gateway to wonder and imagination, guided by the loving hand of a teacher. Mrs. Tilscher is more than a teacher—she is a creator of magic, leading students across exotic landscapes: “Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.” Through her, the speaker discovers that learning is not only about knowledge but also about emotional growth and curiosity. Even the ordinary is elevated: a pencil’s scent, the rhythm of lessons, and a gold star become sacred. Duffy portrays the classroom as a space of creativity and joy where “Enthralling books” open doors beyond the physical world.

⚡ 4. Tension Between Freedom and Structure

The poem explores the balance between childhood freedom and the structure imposed by school and society. The speaker moves from a world ruled by Mrs. Tilscher’s order to one where personal questions arise—“You asked her how you were born”—and are met with silence or polite evasion. The structure is first comforting: windows open “with a long pole,” bells ring to mark transitions, and routines are followed. But by the end, the speaker “ran through the gates, impatient to be grown”, suggesting a desire to break out of childhood’s safe bounds. The thunderstorm that concludes the poem symbolizes this wild and uncertain future beyond the school gates.

Literary Theories and “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

Literary Theory with Symbol	Key References from Poem	Application / Explanation
🧠 Psychoanalytic Theory	“You asked her how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away.” “That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.”	Focuses on the child’s subconscious development and sexual awakening. The confusion and emotional turmoil reflect Freudian stages of development, with symbolic images (storm, electricity) representing inner psychological change.
🧍‍♀️ Feminist Theory	“Mrs Tilscher loved you.” “She’d left a good gold star by your name.”	Highlights the role of the female teacher as a nurturing authority figure. Feminist readings can explore how the poem reclaims the power of female educators and presents an emotional, maternal space often overlooked in male-centered narratives.
📅 New Historicism	“Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.”	The reference to historical child murderers reflects the intrusion of real-world horrors into the safety of the classroom. This theory examines the cultural and historical context of 1970s-80s Britain and its impact on childhood and education.
🎨 Reader-Response Theory	“This was better than home. Enthralling books.” “You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown.”	Emphasizes personal memory and emotional resonance. The poem invites readers to reflect on their own school experiences, using second-person narration (“you”) to immerse them emotionally and interpretively in the speaker’s journey.

Critical Questions about “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

❓ 1. How does “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy portray the transition from childhood to adolescence?

🌩️ In “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class”, Carol Ann Duffy vividly portrays the emotional and physical transition from the secure world of childhood to the awakening uncertainties of adolescence. The poem begins with imagery of wonder and comfort—“The classroom glowed like a sweet shop”—reflecting an idyllic educational setting. However, subtle shifts begin to appear: “the inky tadpoles changed / from commas into exclamation marks” metaphorically describes the bodily changes of puberty. The speaker’s confusion about birth and Mrs. Tilscher’s gentle avoidance—“smiled, then turned away”—marks the moment of separation from childhood simplicity. The final image—“the sky split open into a thunderstorm”—represents emotional upheaval and the symbolic end of innocence.

🧠 2. What role does Mrs Tilscher play in “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy, and how does she influence the speaker’s development?

👩‍🏫 In “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class”, Mrs. Tilscher embodies the nurturing, almost maternal role of a teacher who provides both emotional security and intellectual stimulation. Her affection is direct—“Mrs Tilscher loved you”—and her encouragement tangible, with “a good gold star by your name”. She cultivates an environment where imagination thrives and knowledge feels magical. However, her influence has boundaries. As the speaker matures and begins to question more complex topics—“how you were born”—Mrs. Tilscher’s smile and withdrawal suggest that some answers lie beyond the classroom. She remains a symbol of early guidance, instrumental in the speaker’s development, even as the child moves toward independence.

📚 3. How does Carol Ann Duffy use poetic devices in “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” to evoke sensory experiences of childhood?

🎨 Carol Ann Duffy uses vivid poetic devices in “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” to create a rich tapestry of sensory experiences. Visual imagery like “The classroom glowed like a sweet shop” transforms the learning space into a magical realm. The use of sound—“The laugh of a bell swung by a running child” and “A xylophone’s nonsense”—evokes the playful noise of a lively school. Olfactory imagery such as “The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved” brings back the tactile and smell-based memories tied to school life. These layered devices immerse readers in the poem’s nostalgic atmosphere, reinforcing how childhood is remembered through sensory details.

⚖️ 4. In what ways does “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy reflect a balance between freedom and control in early education?

🔔 “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” delicately balances the theme of freedom and control through the lens of early schooling. While children explore the world through maps and stories—“You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger”—their freedom is framed within a structured environment managed by the teacher. Even the act of opening a window—“A window opened with a long pole”—reflects the controlled nature of this freedom. As the poem progresses, this balance tips. The child’s emerging curiosity and emotional growth challenge the boundaries of school life. The poem ends with “You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown”, signaling a symbolic break from structure into autonomy.

Literary Works Similar to “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

🎒 “The Schoolboy” by William Blake
Like Duffy’s poem, this explores the emotional world of a child at school, contrasting natural joy with institutional control.
🌅 “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas
Shares Duffy’s nostalgic tone, celebrating the innocence of childhood and the inevitable passage of time.
🧠 “Death of a Naturalist” by Seamus Heaney
Mirrors the theme of lost innocence, using sensory imagery and nature metaphors to show a young boy’s shift into maturity.

🍬 “Blackberry-Picking” by Seamus Heaney
Like Duffy, Heaney combines vivid sensory language with childhood memory, illustrating how pleasure turns into disillusionment.
✨ “To a Child Dancing in the Wind” by W.B. Yeats
Resonates with Duffy’s depiction of childhood vulnerability, focusing on the fragile beauty of youth amidst looming change.

Representative Quotations of “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” by Carol Ann Duffy

🔦 Quotation	📝 Context	🧠 Theoretical Perspective
“You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger”	Imaginative geography lessons in a safe classroom space.	Reader-Response: Evokes nostalgic identification with early learning.
“Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery”	The teacher’s voice becomes a comforting rhythm of knowledge.	Feminist: Emphasizes the nurturing, maternal role of a female educator.
“The classroom glowed like a sweet shop”	Vivid visual metaphor creating childlike wonder.	Psychoanalytic: Symbol of sensory pleasure and early cognitive development.
“Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.”	Real-world evil intruding into a previously innocent space.	New Historicist: Invokes cultural trauma from UK criminal history.
“Mrs Tilscher loved you.”	Reassurance and emotional safety in the teacher-student relationship.	Feminist: Challenges patriarchal portrayals by celebrating female authority.
“The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.”	Intimate sensory memory of childhood and school.	Reader-Response: Triggers personal associations with learning and nostalgia.
“The inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks.”	Metaphor for puberty and transformation.	Psychoanalytic: Represents subconscious awareness of bodily change.
“A rough boy told you how you were born.”	Disruptive moment of truth that challenges innocence.	Psychoanalytic: Marks the shock of sexual awakening.
“You asked her how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away.”	A pivotal moment of withheld explanation, marking the boundary between childhood and adulthood.	Feminist / Psychoanalytic: Reflects female silence in patriarchal constructs and the child’s psychological growth.
“You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown, as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.”	Climactic image symbolizing emotional upheaval and transition.	Symbolist / Reader-Response: The storm as metaphor for internal chaos and entry into maturity.

“Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound: A Critical Analysis

“Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound first appeared in 1920 as part of a standalone collection also titled Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Life and Contacts.

Introduction: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

“Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound first appeared in 1920 as part of a standalone collection also titled Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Life and Contacts. This modernist sequence of poems is often considered a turning point in Pound’s career, marking both a summation of his earlier ideals and a farewell to them. The work critiques the cultural and artistic decay of the post-World War I West, contrasting the poet’s quest for classical beauty and artistic integrity with the vulgar materialism and philistinism of contemporary society. The poem’s popularity lies in its rich allusiveness, biting irony, and layered self-awareness. Through a semi-autobiographical persona, Pound explores the futility of artistic idealism in a world that demands commercialism: “The age demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace” (in red font). The phrase underscores the disillusionment with modernity’s preference for surface over substance. The poem is lauded for its formal experimentation, cultural commentary, and its lament for a civilization that, in the poet’s view, had lost touch with truth, honor, and aesthetic excellence.

Text: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

(Life and Contacts)

“Vocat aestus in umbram”
Nemesianus Ec. IV.

E. P. ODE POUR L’ÉLECTION DE SON SÉPULCHRE

For three years, out of key with his time,

He strove to resuscitate the dead art

Of poetry; to maintain “the sublime”

In the old sense. Wrong from the start—

No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born

In a half savage country, out of date;

Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;

Capaneus; trout for factitious bait:

“Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie

Caught in the unstopped ear;

Giving the rocks small lee-way

The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert,

He fished by obstinate isles;

Observed the elegance of Circe’s hair

Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Unaffected by “the march of events,”

He passed from men’s memory in l’an trentiesme

De son eage; the case presents

No adjunct to the Muses’ diadem.

The age demanded an image

Of its accelerated grimace,

Something for the modern stage,

Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;

Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries

Of the inward gaze;

Better mendacities

Than the classics in paraphrase!

The “age demanded” chiefly a mould in plaster,

Made with no loss of time,

A prose kinema, not, not assuredly, alabaster

Or the “sculpture” of rhyme.

III

The tea-rose, tea-gown, etc.

Supplants the mousseline of Cos,

The pianola “replaces”

Sappho’s barbitos.

Christ follows Dionysus,

Phallic and ambrosial

Made way for macerations;

Caliban casts out Ariel.

All things are a flowing,

Sage Heracleitus says;

But a tawdry cheapness

Shall reign throughout our days.

Even the Christian beauty

Defects—after Samothrace;

We see to kalon

Decreed in the market place.

Faun’s flesh is not to us,

Nor the saint’s vision.

We have the press for wafer;

Franchise for circumcision.

All men, in law, are equals.

Free of Peisistratus,

We choose a knave or an eunuch

To rule over us.

A bright Apollo,

tin andra, tin eroa, tina theon,

What god, man, or hero

Shall I place a tin wreath upon?

These fought, in any case,

and some believing, pro domo, in any case …

Some quick to arm,

some for adventure,

some from fear of weakness,

some from fear of censure,

some for love of slaughter, in imagination,

learning later …

some in fear, learning love of slaughter;

Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor” …

walked eye-deep in hell

believing in old men’s lies, then unbelieving

came home, home to a lie,

home to many deceits,

home to old lies and new infamy;

usury age-old and age-thick

and liars in public places.

Daring as never before, wastage as never before.

Young blood and high blood,

Fair cheeks, and fine bodies;

fortitude as never before

frankness as never before,

disillusions as never told in the old days,

hysterias, trench confessions,

laughter out of dead bellies.

There died a myriad,

And of the best, among them,

For an old bitch gone in the teeth,

For a botched civilization.

Charm, smiling at the good mouth,

Quick eyes gone under earth’s lid,

For two gross of broken statues,

For a few thousand battered books.

YEUX GLAUQUES

Gladstone was still respected,

When John Ruskin produced

“Kings Treasuries”; Swinburne

And Rossetti still abused.

Foetid Buchanan lifted up his voice

When that faun’s head of hers

Became a pastime for

Painters and adulterers.

The Burne-Jones cartons

Have preserved her eyes;

Still, at the Tate, they teach

Cophetua to rhapsodize;

Thin like brook-water,

With a vacant gaze.

The English Rubaiyat was still-born

In those days.

The thin, clear gaze, the same

Still darts out faun-like from the half-ruin’d face,

Questing and passive ….

“Ah, poor Jenny’s case” …

Bewildered that a world

Shows no surprise

At her last maquero’s

Adulteries.

“SIENA MI FE’, DISFECEMI MAREMMA'”

Among the pickled foetuses and bottled bones,

Engaged in perfecting the catalogue,

I found the last scion of the

Senatorial families of Strasbourg, Monsieur Verog.

For two hours he talked of Gallifet;

Of Dowson; of the Rhymers’ Club;

Told me how Johnson (Lionel) died

By falling from a high stool in a pub …

But showed no trace of alcohol

At the autopsy, privately performed—

Tissue preserved—the pure mind

Arose toward Newman as the whiskey warmed.

Dowson found harlots cheaper than hotels;

Headlam for uplift; Image impartially imbued

With raptures for Bacchus, Terpsichore and the Church.

So spoke the author of “The Dorian Mood,”

M. Verog, out of step with the decade,

Detached from his contemporaries,

Neglected by the young,

Because of these reveries.

BRENNEBAUM

The sky-like limpid eyes,

The circular infant’s face,

The stiffness from spats to collar

Never relaxing into grace;

The heavy memories of Horeb, Sinai and the forty years,

Showed only when the daylight fell

Level across the face

Of Brennbaum “The Impeccable.”

MR. NIXON

In the cream gilded cabin of his steam yacht

Mr. Nixon advised me kindly, to advance with fewer

Dangers of delay. “Consider

“Carefully the reviewer.

“I was as poor as you are;

“When I began I got, of course,

“Advance on royalties, fifty at first,” said Mr. Nixon,

“Follow me, and take a column,

“Even if you have to work free.

“Butter reviewers. From fifty to three hundred

“I rose in eighteen months;

“The hardest nut I had to crack

“Was Dr. Dundas.

“I never mentioned a man but with the view

“Of selling my own works.

“The tip’s a good one, as for literature

“It gives no man a sinecure.”

And no one knows, at sight a masterpiece.

And give up verse, my boy,

There’s nothing in it.”

* * * *

Likewise a friend of Bloughram’s once advised me:

Don’t kick against the pricks,

Accept opinion. The “Nineties” tried your game

And died, there’s nothing in it.

Beneath the sagging roof

The stylist has taken shelter,

Unpaid, uncelebrated,

At last from the world’s welter

Nature receives him,

With a placid and uneducated mistress

He exercises his talents

And the soil meets his distress.

The haven from sophistications and contentions

Leaks through its thatch;

He offers succulent cooking;

The door has a creaking latch.

“Conservatrix of Milésien”

Habits of mind and feeling,

Possibly. But in Ealing

With the most bank-clerkly of Englishmen?

No, “Milésian” is an exaggeration.

No instinct has survived in her

Older than those her grandmother

Told her would fit her station.

XII

“Daphne with her thighs in bark

Stretches toward me her leafy hands,”—

Subjectively. In the stuffed-satin drawing-room

I await The Lady Valentine’s commands,

Knowing my coat has never been

Of precisely the fashion

To stimulate, in her,

A durable passion;

Doubtful, somewhat, of the value

Of well-gowned approbation

Of literary effort,

But never of The Lady Valentine’s vocation:

Poetry, her border of ideas,

The edge, uncertain, but a means of blending

With other strata

Where the lower and higher have ending;

A hook to catch the Lady Jane’s attention,

A modulation toward the theatre,

Also, in the case of revolution,

A possible friend and comforter.

* * * *

Conduct, on the other hand, the soul

“Which the highest cultures have nourished”

To Fleet St. where

Dr. Johnson flourished;

Beside this thoroughfare

The sale of half-hose has

Long since superseded the cultivation

Of Pierian roses.

Envoi (1919)

Go, dumb-born book,

Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes:

Hadst thou but song

As thou hast subjects known,

Then were there cause in thee that should condone

Even my faults that heavy upon me lie

And build her glories their longevity.

Tell her that sheds

Such treasure in the air,

Recking naught else but that her graces give

Life to the moment,

I would bid them live

As roses might, in magic amber laid,

Red overwrought with orange and all made

One substance and one colour

Braving time.

Tell her that goes

With song upon her lips

But sings not out the song, nor knows

The maker of it, some other mouth,

May be as fair as hers,

Might, in new ages, gain her worshippers,

When our two dusts with Waller’s shall be laid,

Siftings on siftings in oblivion,

Till change hath broken down

All things save Beauty alone.

Annotations: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

Stanza / Section	Simple English Annotation
I – Life and Contacts	The speaker (a version of Pound) tries to revive traditional poetry, aiming for high artistic standards. But he realizes he’s out of sync with the modern world that no longer values such ideals.
II	The modern age wants flashy, fast-paced, and shallow content—”a prose kinema”—rather than timeless classical beauty or thoughtful poetry.
III	Pound mourns how deep cultural and spiritual values have been replaced by cheap, mass-produced imitations; art, religion, and beauty are all commercialized.
IV	Reflects on World War I: soldiers went to war believing in old ideals, only to be betrayed by lies. They returned disillusioned and damaged by their experience.
V	A bitter conclusion: the war killed the best of a generation for a decaying, corrupted civilization—represented by broken statues and worn-out books.
Yeux Glauques	Criticizes how modern society objectifies women and trivializes beauty. References to past literary figures and artworks that are now misused or misunderstood.
Siena mi fe’, disfecemi Maremma’	Pound satirizes a nostalgic intellectual (Monsieur Verog) who is stuck in the past and out of touch with his time. He’s isolated and irrelevant.
Brennbaum	A character representing rigid, lifeless academic or religious figures—outwardly respectable but emotionally and spiritually empty.
Mr. Nixon	Symbolizes commercialism in art. He advises the poet to give up idealism and focus on selling and pleasing critics, not creating real poetry.
X	The poet finally escapes from the noisy, dishonest world. He finds peace living simply with nature and an ordinary woman, away from society.
XI	Mocks the pretensions of a woman who tries to act cultured but is shallow. True emotional depth and instinct are lost in her world.
XII	The poet reflects on his failed attempts to gain approval from elite women. Poetry becomes just a fashionable hobby, not a true passion or purpose.
Envoi (1919)	A farewell to his work: the poet hopes that beauty alone will survive over time, even if his poem and name are forgotten. He dedicates it to a muse-like figure, valuing her inspiration over fame.

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

🔹	Device	Example from Text	Explanation	Function in Poem
✨	Allusion	“His true Penelope was Flaubert”	Refers to Odysseus’ wife Penelope, comparing Flaubert to an ideal literary counterpart.	Elevates Flaubert as a symbol of literary fidelity and artistic ideal.
🟩	Anaphora	“Not, not certainly…”	Repetition of “not” at the beginning of successive clauses.	Emphasizes rejection of outdated ideals and Attic grace.
🔶	Antithesis	“Charm, smiling at the good mouth, / Quick eyes gone…”	Juxtaposes beauty with death.	Highlights the futility of beauty and artistic legacy in wartime destruction.
🟥	Apostrophe	“Go, dumb-born book”	Addressing an inanimate object (the book).	Adds a personal and elegiac tone, as Pound reflects on the fate of his art.
💠	Assonance	“tea-rose, tea-gown”	Repetition of vowel sounds.	Enhances musicality and satirizes bourgeois modern taste.
⭐	Classical Reference	“Capaneus; trout for factitious bait”	Capaneus is a figure from Greek mythology.	Suggests futility in resisting fate and connects to Pound’s broader classical themes.
🔸	Contrast	“Christ follows Dionysus”	Contrasts Christian and pagan values.	Emphasizes cultural decay and the shift from aesthetic to ascetic.
🟨	Diction	“botched civilization,” “wafer,” “circumcision”	Sharp, often jarring word choices.	Critiques modernity with brutal honesty and irony.
🎯	Ekphrasis	“The Burne-Jones cartons / Have preserved her eyes”	Describes visual art in poetic language.	Immortalizes artistic beauty amid modern decay.
🔷	Enjambment	“Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor” …	Sentence continues beyond the line without pause.	Reflects disorder and breathlessness of war and post-war trauma.
🟧	Epigraph	“Vocat aestus in umbram – Nemesianus Ec. IV”	A Latin quote opens the poem.	Sets a tone of classical reflection and poetic tradition.
✨	Hyperbole	“fortitude as never before”	Extreme exaggeration.	Magnifies the courage and suffering of the war generation.
🟦	Imagery	“walked eye-deep in hell”	Vivid visual and emotional description.	Conveys the horrors of trench warfare.
💠	Irony	“For a botched civilization”	Bitter contrast between the sacrifice and its supposed cause.	Criticizes modernity and war using sardonic tone.
🌟	Juxtaposition	“mousseline of Cos” vs. “tea-gown”	Pairs contrasting images from antiquity and modernity.	Shows decline from classical elegance to shallow consumerism.
🟩	Metaphor	“A hook to catch the Lady Jane’s attention”	Comparing poetry to a hook.	Suggests manipulation and commodification of poetry.
🔶	Personification	“Tell her that sheds / Such treasure in the air”	Gives human qualities to poetry or muse.	Celebrates artistic inspiration with emotional depth.
🟥	Repetition	“Some… some… some…”	Repeating words to emphasize variety and chaos.	Highlights complex motives of war soldiers.
🔸	Satire	“Butter reviewers. From fifty to three hundred”	Ridicules commercial tactics in literature.	Critiques the publishing world’s opportunism.
🎯	Symbolism	“tin wreath”	Tin as a symbol of cheap honor.	Mocks the devaluation of heroism in the modern age.

Themes: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

🔷 1. Alienation from Modern Society

In “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Ezra Pound portrays the profound alienation of the artist from modern society, highlighting his inability to resonate with a changing world. The poem opens with “For three years, out of key with his time,” which immediately positions the protagonist as disconnected from the cultural and temporal currents surrounding him. This alienation intensifies as the speaker laments the decay of aesthetic ideals and laments the rise of “the age” which “demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace.” The phrase underscores how modernity, with its superficiality and haste, leaves no room for classical beauty or thoughtful creation. Pound presents Mauberley (a semi-autobiographical figure) as a tragic embodiment of this misfit artist, whose devotion to art finds no home in an industrial, utilitarian culture.

🟨 2. Decay of Art and Aesthetic Values

Ezra Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” fiercely critiques the decline of aesthetic standards in modern art and literature. The speaker mocks contemporary art forms, calling them a “prose kinema” and not “the sculpture of rhyme,” suggesting that artistry has been replaced by mechanized and mass-produced entertainment. This shift is symbolized through the replacement of “Sappho’s barbitos” with the “pianola”—a move from lyrical, personal expression to mechanical reproduction. In naming Flaubert as “his true Penelope,” Pound pays homage to literary fidelity while contrasting it with the ephemeral nature of modern fame. The poem thus mourns a lost era of refined, painstakingly crafted art, displaced by consumer-driven mediocrity.

🟥 3. The Futility and Horror of War

War emerges in “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” as a devastating and senseless force that destroys youth and culture, particularly in Sections IV and V. Pound writes of the soldiers who “walked eye-deep in hell / believing in old men’s lies,” only to return to “old lies and new infamy.” These lines convey deep bitterness at the betrayal of idealistic soldiers by a corrupt political and social system. The use of ironic Latin—”non dulce non et decor”—satirizes Horace’s famous line, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” reinforcing the poet’s rejection of glorified nationalism. This theme not only critiques war’s physical destruction but also the spiritual and moral degradation it spreads across generations.

💠 4. The Failure of the Artist in the Modern World

In “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Ezra Pound depicts the artist’s tragic failure to influence or thrive in a modern world increasingly indifferent to genuine creativity. The titular figure “passed from men’s memory,” and the poem laments that he was “unpaid, uncelebrated,” a victim of a society that chooses “a knave or an eunuch” to rule over it. This critique extends to literary culture, where Pound portrays corrupt figures like Mr. Nixon advising to “Butter reviewers” and abandon poetry for profit. The envoi, “Go, dumb-born book,” reflects both hope and despair—an appeal to posterity and a recognition of present futility. Mauberley’s failure symbolizes the modern poet’s struggle against commercialization, vulgarity, and irrelevance.

Literary Theories and “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

💠	Literary Theory	Application to the Poem	Textual Reference & Explanation
🔷	Modernism	Reflects disillusionment with modern society, fragmentation of identity, and the decay of artistic ideals.	“For three years, out of key with his time” – Mauberley represents the modernist alienation and cultural exile.
🟥	New Historicism	Analyzes the text in relation to its historical context—WWI, post-war disillusionment, and early 20th-century culture.	“Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor” – Subverts patriotic propaganda by exposing war’s horrifying truth.
🟨	Marxist Criticism	Highlights economic forces corrupting literature and art, commodification of creativity, and class commentary.	“Butter reviewers. From fifty to three hundred / I rose in eighteen months” – Critique of capitalism’s role in literary success.
🌟	Psychoanalytic Criticism	Explores inner conflicts, artistic identity, and unconscious desires expressed through Mauberley’s persona.	“Poetry, her border of ideas…a hook to catch the Lady Jane’s attention” – Desire for validation veiled in artistic pretense.

Critical Questions about “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

🔷 1. How does Ezra Pound portray the role of the artist in a changing modern world?

In “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Ezra Pound portrays the artist as an outsider in an era that no longer values depth, craft, or aesthetic dedication. The poem opens with the assertion that the protagonist is “out of key with his time,” establishing a conflict between timeless artistic ideals and the temporal vulgarities of modernity. The age, the poet laments, “demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace,” preferring superficial, mechanized representations to carefully honed expression. Through this lens, the artist is alienated and increasingly irrelevant, “unpaid, uncelebrated,” retreating into obscurity. This criticism is both personal and universal—an expression of Pound’s disillusionment with how modern life undermines the seriousness and value of artistic labor.

🟨 2. In what ways does the poem reflect a critique of war and its aftermath?

Ezra Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” offers a scathing indictment of World War I and the cultural forces that justified it. In Section IV, he describes soldiers who “walked eye-deep in hell / believing in old men’s lies,” drawing attention to the blind idealism that led them to the trenches. The Latin phrase “Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor” reverses Horace’s noble sentiment, exposing the irony of dying for a failing civilization. Rather than honoring the dead in conventional heroic terms, Pound exposes the grotesque reality behind their sacrifice: “For two gross of broken statues, / For a few thousand battered books.” Through these bitter reflections, the poem mourns not only the lives lost but the cultural decay and deception that facilitated such destruction.

🟥 3. What does Pound suggest about the cultural decline of the West in this poem?

In “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Pound laments what he sees as the catastrophic decline of Western cultural values, a theme rendered through irony, classical allusion, and critique of mass society. The lines “The pianola ‘replaces’ / Sappho’s barbitos” and “Christ follows Dionysus” signify a tragic shift from authentic, sacred beauty to mechanical entertainment and moral sterility. Where once high art and mythic resonance shaped civilization, now, “a tawdry cheapness / Shall reign throughout our days.” This decline is not merely aesthetic but also spiritual and intellectual, as the modern world commodifies what was once revered. Pound constructs a poetic world where tradition has eroded, and with it, the meaning and value of culture itself.

🌟 4. How does Pound utilize form and structure to mirror the thematic fragmentation of modernity?

The formal structure of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” mirrors the disjointed, fractured experience of modernity that Ezra Pound seeks to portray. Rather than presenting a cohesive narrative, the poem is composed of thematically linked yet formally disjointed segments, oscillating between autobiographical reflection, social critique, and classical homage. Enjambment and abrupt tonal shifts underscore the cultural fragmentation at the heart of the poem. For example, transitions between scenes like “walked eye-deep in hell” and the businesslike cynicism of “Butter reviewers” reflect the collapse of moral and aesthetic coherence. This fragmentation is deliberate—Pound uses it to embody the disorientation of the postwar world and the breakdown of meaningful artistic and cultural continuity.

Literary Works Similar to “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

🔷 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot
Both poems explore the alienation and fragmentation of the modern individual in a disillusioned, mechanized world.

🟨 “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen
Like Pound’s poem, it bitterly critiques the glorification of war and reveals the horrific reality faced by soldiers during World War I.

🟥 “September 1, 1939” by W. H. Auden
This poem, like Pound’s, reflects on historical and cultural failure, addressing the anxieties of a collapsing civilization on the eve of war.

🌟 “The Waste Land” by T. S. Eliot
Fragmented in form and rich in literary allusion, this modernist masterpiece parallels Pound’s themes of cultural decline and spiritual desolation.

💠 “To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare” by Ben Jonson
Though written centuries earlier, this elegiac poem shares Pound’s blend of literary homage and critique of contemporary artistic values.

Representative Quotations of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” by Ezra Pound

🌟	Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
🔷	“For three years, out of key with his time,”	Introduces Mauberley as an anachronistic figure disconnected from the modern world.	Modernism
🟨	“The age demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace,”	Critique of a society that values superficial, fast-paced representations over depth.	Cultural Criticism
🟥	“His true Penelope was Flaubert,”	Mauberley’s fidelity is not to a woman, but to artistic perfection, like Flaubert’s.	Psychoanalytic Criticism
💠	“walked eye-deep in hell / believing in old men’s lies,”	Condemns the disillusionment and trauma faced by WWI soldiers.	New Historicism / Marxism
🌈	“Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor”	Ironically reverses Horace’s patriotic ideal to condemn the senselessness of war.	Anti-War / Historicist
🟩	“Butter reviewers. From fifty to three hundred…”	Satirizes the commercialization of literature and critical corruption.	Marxist Criticism
🔶	“The pianola ‘replaces’ / Sappho’s barbitos.”	Shows decline from classical lyricism to mechanical modernity.	Modernism / Cultural Criticism
✨	“A bright Apollo, / tin andra, tin eroa, tina theon”	Mocks classical heroism by ironically offering a tin wreath instead of laurel.	Deconstruction / Irony
🟦	“unpaid, uncelebrated, / At last from the world’s welter”	The artist withdraws from public life, unrecognized and isolated.	Modernism / Psychoanalysis
🔺	“Go, dumb-born book”	The closing envoi, a resigned and sorrowful farewell to poetry and influence.	Elegy / Postmodern Resignation

“The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton: Summary and Critique

“The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton first appeared in 1997 in the journal New Literary History (Vol. 28, No. 1), a special issue titled Cultural Studies: China and the West, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Introduction: “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton

“The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton first appeared in 1997 in the journal New Literary History (Vol. 28, No. 1), a special issue titled Cultural Studies: China and the West, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. In this incisive and polemical essay, Eagleton critiques the ideological assumptions and internal inconsistencies of postmodernism, especially as it manifests in the Western cultural left. He argues that postmodernism, while appearing radical in its celebration of plurality, fluidity, and cultural difference, paradoxically mirrors the logic of advanced capitalism, becoming both a critique and a reinforcement of the status quo. Culturalism—one of his key targets—is shown to be as reductive in its emphasis on the socially constructed as economism is in its materialism, thereby sidelining common human realities. Eagleton also challenges the idea that historicism or cultural marginality is inherently subversive, exposing these claims as forms of formalist illusion lacking substantive political critique. By showing how postmodernism has shifted from being a space of resistance to one of commodified integration, Eagleton underscores the complicity of culture in global capitalist reproduction. The importance of this article lies in its forceful reassertion of a materialist and dialectical critique at a time when postmodern relativism dominated literary and cultural theory. It remains a foundational work for scholars interrogating the intersections of ideology, cultural politics, and late capitalism.

Summary of “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton

🔴 Postmodernism Mirrors Capitalism, Not Opposes It
Eagleton argues that postmodernism is both a critique of and complicit in capitalist ideology. It mimics the logic of the market with its celebration of fluidity, plurality, and relativism, thus undercutting its own radical potential. He writes:

“Postmodernism is both radical and conservative together, springing as it does from this structural contradiction at the core of advanced capitalism itself” (Eagleton, 1997, p. 5).
Rather than being a force of resistance, postmodern culture has become a commodity, functioning “thoroughly under the sway of the commodity form” (p. 3).

🟢 Culturalism Is a Reductive Ideology
Eagleton critiques culturalism—the belief that everything is culturally constructed—as just another “ism”, as reductive as biologism or economism:

“Culturalism inflates the importance of what is constructed…as against what human beings have in common as natural material animals” (p. 1).
This form of thinking ignores shared material conditions and can be just as politically neutral or conservative as other ideologies.

🔵 Historicism Is Not Inherently Radical
Eagleton also challenges the assumption that historicism naturally aligns with leftist or progressive politics. He states:

“Much historicism in Europe has been firmly in possession of political conservatism” (p. 2),
reminding readers that historical awareness alone does not guarantee subversive or liberatory outcomes.

🟣 Culture as a Site of Contradiction
In postmodern society, culture becomes both a means of resistance and domination. Eagleton traces this back to a re-merging of the symbolic and the economic, where art and culture no longer sit outside the marketplace:

“Cultural production rejoins general production…now thoroughly under the sway of the commodity form” (p. 3).
Thus, culture no longer offers refuge or critical distance but becomes entangled with the very forces it critiques.

🟡 The Irony of Postmodernism’s Global Export
He highlights the irony that postmodernism, which preaches difference, contributes to cultural homogenization, especially in emerging economies like China:

“Postmodern theory has arrived along with the latest shipment of Coca-Cola” (p. 6).
This philosophy of difference is paradoxically used to universalize Western norms in the name of pluralism.

🟠 The Enlightenment Debate: Gains vs. Losses
Eagleton argues for a dialectical view of Enlightenment, recognizing both its emancipatory aspirations and historical failures:

“The doctrine which has traditionally tried to redeem the positive kernel of Enlightenment…is known as socialism” (p. 6).
He cautions that postmodern rejection of Enlightenment risks losing its most valuable legacies, such as civil liberties and universal rights.

🟤 Postmodern Culture as Ideological Displacement
Culture, Eagleton explains, has become a primary terrain of political struggle, especially in the wake of the decline of classical class-based politics:

“Culture becomes part of the very terms in which political interests articulate themselves” (p. 4).
This shift is seen both as an enrichment and a distraction, potentially displacing more direct forms of material struggle.

⚫ Subversion and Plurality Are Not Automatically Radical
Eagleton dismantles the myth that all forms of difference and marginality are inherently progressive:

“There is nothing automatically radical about either margins or minorities… some forms of plurality are radical, whereas others are as native to the free market as violence is to the United States” (p. 2).
He insists that political content matters more than formal characteristics like difference or hybridity.

Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton

Term / Concept	Usage and Explanation in the Article
Postmodernism	Described as both radical and conservative. It mirrors the fluidity of capitalism while claiming to oppose it: “The answer to the question of whether postmodernism is radical or conservative can only be a firm yes and no.”
Culturalism	Critiqued as a reductive doctrine that overemphasizes cultural construction and downplays material commonalities: “Culturalism inflates the importance of what is constructed… as against what human beings have in common as natural material animals.”
Historicism	Not inherently radical. Conservatives also use history to support their ideologies: “Much historicism in Europe has been firmly in possession of political conservatism.”
Commodity Form	Cultural production is now fully embedded in capitalist commodity exchange: “Cultural production rejoins general production… now thoroughly under the sway of the commodity form.”
Enlightenment	Treated dialectically—both as a source of emancipation and oppression. Postmodernism discards it, but Eagleton suggests salvaging its positive aspects through socialism.
Ideology	Not always based on naturalization. Ideological positions may be openly constructed and contingent: “One can be a doughty defender of capitalism or Stalinism without suffering from the delusion that things were always like that.”
Pluralism / Difference	Difference is not automatically radical. Market capitalism thrives on certain types of pluralism: “Some forms of plurality are radical, whereas others are as native to the free market as violence is to the United States.”
Epistemology	Used to critique thinkers like Stanley Fish and Richard Rorty, who tie relativist knowledge frameworks to conservative or liberal politics.
Naturalizing	Postmodernists mistake all appeals to nature as ideological, forgetting that Enlightenment radicalism used nature as a leveling force: “They have demonized all appeals to the natural as insidiously naturalizing.”
Superstructure / Base	Revisits Marxist theory to show how capitalist economies require ideological superstructures to justify themselves: “Their ideological superstructures… will need to insist upon absolute values.”
Use-value vs Exchange-value	Once oppositional, art is now commodified, mimicking exchange-value: “The art… turns out to be just another modality of [exchange-value].”
Stageist Theory	Critiqued as Eurocentric and impractical. Suggests China must experience modernity before postmodernity, which Eagleton views as problematic: “Stageist theories are always a little suspect.”
Modernity / Premodernity	Describes the transition from traditional societies to modern capitalism and then postmodern integration of the symbolic with the economic.
Liberal Humanism	Seen as outdated; it once offered utopian cultural ideals, but now fails to respond to the commodification of culture: “That faith… bred a generously Utopian lineage along with a perilously mystifying one.”

Contribution of “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton to Literary Theory/Theories

🔴 Contribution to Marxist Literary Theory
Eagleton reasserts Marxist materialism within cultural critique, arguing that postmodernism’s relativism masks deep structural contradictions of capitalism. He revives base-superstructure analysis, noting:

“The more market forces level all distinct value and identity… the more their ideological superstructures… will need to insist… upon absolute values and immutable standards” (p. 5).
✅ Impact: Refocuses Marxist literary theory on economic determinism beneath postmodern cultural pluralism.

🟢 Critique of Postmodern Literary Theory
He delivers a foundational critique of postmodernism’s claims to radicalism, showing it to be structurally aligned with the logic of the capitalist marketplace:

“Postmodernism is both radical and conservative together… miming the logic of the capitalist marketplace itself” (p. 5).
✅ Impact: Challenges the postmodern celebration of fragmentation and multiplicity as inherently emancipatory.

🔵 Intervention in Cultural Studies
Eagleton critiques culturalism—a core tenet in cultural studies—for its overemphasis on constructed identity and neglect of material realities:

“Culturalism inflates the importance of what is constructed, coded, conventional… as against what human beings have in common as natural material animals” (p. 1).
✅ Impact: Warns literary theorists against reducing all analysis to cultural codes, advocating instead for materialist grounding.

🟣 Contribution to Historicism Debates
He critiques both radical and conservative uses of historicism, disrupting the idea that historical contextualization is always politically progressive:

“Much historicism in Europe has been firmly in possession of political conservatism” (p. 2).
✅ Impact: Complicates the assumption within literary theory that historicizing texts naturally produces critical or emancipatory readings.

🟡 Engagement with Ideology Critique
Refines the role of ideology in literary and cultural texts—not all ideologies operate by naturalizing the present:

“One can be a doughty defender of capitalism or Stalinism without suffering from the delusion that things were always like that” (p. 2).
✅ Impact: Challenges literary critics to look beyond simplistic views of ideology as merely “false consciousness.”

🟠 Revision of Enlightenment Narratives
He offers a dialectical take on Enlightenment—neither wholly dismissed nor blindly embraced—urging theorists to retain its emancipatory goals:

“The doctrine which has traditionally tried to redeem the positive kernel of Enlightenment… is known as socialism” (p. 6).
✅ Impact: Encourages reevaluation of Enlightenment values within postmodern literary theory rather than total rejection.

🟤 Critique of Liberal Humanism in Literary Studies
Questions the viability of liberal humanism as a mediating force in literary meaning, particularly in an era when culture itself is commodified:

“It is clearly much harder to sustain [liberal humanism] once culture… becomes part of the very terms in which political interests articulate themselves” (p. 4).
✅ Impact: Pushes literary theorists to move beyond humanist ideals and confront ideological embeddedness of culture.

⚫ Global Contextualization of Literary Theory
By discussing China and postmodernism, Eagleton highlights the limitations of exporting Western literary theory uncritically:

“Western postmodern theory has arrived along with the latest shipment of Coca-Cola” (p. 6).
✅ Impact: Sparks reflection on cultural imperialism in the global spread of Western literary and cultural theories.

Examples of Critiques Through “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton

Literary Work	Critique through Eagleton’s Lens
Don DeLillo – White Noise	Reflects postmodernism’s obsession with surface, consumerism, and media simulation. Eagleton would critique it as a cultural product that critiques the system while also mimicking it: “Culture becomes part of the very terms in which political interests articulate themselves” (p. 4).
Jeanette Winterson – Written on the Body	Embodies the postmodern celebration of fluid identity and indeterminate meaning. Eagleton would question the political efficacy of such plurality: “Some forms of plurality are radical, whereas others are as native to the free market as violence is to the United States” (p. 2).
Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho	Illustrates the collapse of moral and aesthetic values in late capitalism. Eagleton would view its stylized violence and commodified bodies as a symptom of culture under the sway of commodity logic: “The art… turns out to be just another modality of [exchange-value]” (p. 3).
Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things	While addressing postcolonial and cultural identities, Eagleton might caution against reading cultural difference as inherently subversive, warning: “Postmodernism… is now actively contributing to the remorseless cultural homogenization of the globe” (p. 6).

Criticism Against “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton

🔴 ⚖️ Over-Reliance on Marxist Framework
Critics argue that Eagleton overemphasizes economic determinism, filtering all cultural critique through a Marxist lens. This can downplay other axes of identity like race, gender, and sexuality, which postmodernism often foregrounds in nuanced ways.

🟢 🌐 Dismissive of Cultural Difference
Eagleton critiques culturalism and plurality as often serving capitalism, but this risks undermining legitimate struggles for identity, visibility, and representation. His suspicion of difference may seem to dismiss minority or postcolonial voices seeking recognition.

🔵 🔁 Binary Framing of Radical vs. Conservative
By arguing that postmodernism is both radical and conservative, some readers feel Eagleton sets up a reductive binary that glosses over the productive tensions and ambivalences within postmodern thought itself.

🟣 📚 Lack of Engagement with Postmodern Literary Texts
The essay offers a sweeping philosophical critique but rarely engages directly with specific literary works or genres associated with postmodernism (e.g., metafiction, magical realism, cyberpunk), which can make the argument feel too abstract or generalized.

🟡 🗺️ Eurocentric Perspective
Even while critiquing Western theory’s imposition on places like China, Eagleton’s tone and arguments still emerge from a European intellectual tradition, and he fails to fully engage non-Western theoretical perspectives on postmodernity and culture.

🟠 🧩 Reduction of Postmodernism to Capitalist Logic
By linking postmodernism too closely with consumer capitalism, Eagleton arguably ignores its subversive aesthetic contributions, such as narrative innovation, language play, and anti-foundational critique, which have expanded literary possibilities.

⚫ 💭 Idealization of Enlightenment/Socialism
Eagleton’s call to salvage the “positive kernel” of Enlightenment and socialism may come across as nostalgic or idealized, especially to readers skeptical of both traditions’ imperialistic or exclusionary histories.

🟤 📉 Limited Impact on Literary Formalism
Although Eagleton critiques liberal humanism and culturalism, some critics note that he doesn’t offer a concrete framework for analyzing literary form, leaving theorists without a clear method for textual interpretation.

Representative Quotations from “The Contradictions of Postmodernism” by Terry Eagleton with Explanation

Quotation	Explanation
1. “Postmodernism is both radical and conservative together… miming the logic of the capitalist marketplace itself.”	Captures the central paradox of postmodernism: it critiques dominant ideologies while reproducing their economic logic.
2. “Culturalism inflates the importance of what is constructed… as against what human beings have in common as natural material animals.”	Eagleton critiques culturalism for ignoring shared material and biological conditions in favor of endless relativism.
3. “There is nothing automatically radical about either margins or minorities.”	Challenges the assumption in postmodern theory that marginality is inherently subversive; calls for historical and political specificity.
4. “The work of art… turns out to be just another modality of [exchange-value].”	A Marxist view of how art has been commodified under capitalism, losing its critical distance.
5. “Today’s Western cultural left… have demonized all appeals to the natural as insidiously naturalizing.”	Eagleton criticizes the cultural left for forgetting that Enlightenment appeals to nature were once radical and universalizing.
6. “Historicizing is by no means inherently radical either.”	He challenges historicism as a default progressive method, arguing that conservatives also use historical narratives.
7. “Culture becomes part of the very terms in which political interests articulate themselves.”	Culture is no longer a neutral or alternative space but deeply entangled in power and ideology.
8. “Western postmodern theory has arrived along with the latest shipment of Coca-Cola.”	A biting comment on how postmodern thought often accompanies cultural imperialism and global capitalism.
9. “The more market forces level all distinct value and identity… the more their ideological superstructures will need to insist… upon absolute values.”	Eagleton describes how capitalism paradoxically promotes relativism while demanding ideological rigidity.
10. “All one can perhaps point out is… the important issues are most certainly not in the first place ‘cultural.'”	He concludes by emphasizing that political and economic struggles—not culture—should remain the central concern.

“The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis: Summary and Critique

“The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis first appeared in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), in a special issue titled Cultural Studies and New Historicism (pp. 14–23).

Introduction: “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis

“The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis first appeared in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), in a special issue titled Cultural Studies and New Historicism (pp. 14–23). In this critical essay, Lewis responds to Catherine Gallagher’s influential piece “Marxism and the New Historicism,” offering a powerful Marxist critique of New Historicism’s ideological tendencies and political shortcomings. Central to Lewis’s argument is the contention that New Historicism, rather than representing a genuine advance in politically engaged criticism, reflects a retreat into ironic detachment, academic formalism, and middle-class quietism. He contrasts the revolutionary potential of classical Marxism—which prioritizes working-class agency and structural transformation—with New Historicism’s reluctance to commit to political praxis or revolutionary aims. Lewis challenges the idea that cultural critique alone, devoid of organized political engagement, can meaningfully confront capitalist ideology. He argues that New Historicism has inherited the failures of the New Left, particularly its fragmentation, identity-based politics, and detachment from class struggle. Importantly, the essay underscores the necessity of party organization, historical materialism, and solidarity across oppressed groups as foundational to any emancipatory literary practice. Lewis’s contribution is significant for reasserting the need to link literary theory with real-world social transformation, reaffirming Marxist criticism’s relevance against the backdrop of depoliticized academic trends.

Summary of “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis

🔴 Critique of New Historicism’s Class Position

🧩 New Historicism reflects middle-class intellectual detachment: Lewis argues it emerged from the “new middle classes” and expresses a “modernist stance of ironic detachment” after the failures of the 1968 radical wave (p. 14).

🕳️ Politically “abstract and paralyzing”: Though nuanced, New Historicism’s politics are seen as ultimately hollow and non-transformative (p. 14).
📉 It fails to offer a path to real social change, remaining within the confines of academia.

🟢 Gallagher’s Defense of New Historicism Challenged

📖 Catherine Gallagher’s essay “Marxism and the New Historicism” is the focal point of Lewis’s critique. She claims New Historicism continues the legacy of 1960s radicalism, particularly the New Left (p. 14).
🚫 Lewis disagrees, arguing that Gallagher “preserves and continues” New Left tendencies while overlooking their failures (p. 14–15).
📚 He sees her narrative as a misrepresentation that evades the structural decline of radical activism into academic theory.

🟡 New Left: From Revolution to Radical Chic

🎯 Initial successes: The New Left opposed the Vietnam War and supported civil rights and anti-imperialist struggles (p. 15).
🏫 Co-opted by academia: Lewis criticizes the transition of radicals into academic roles, noting that they “quickly went from radical to radical chic” (p. 15).

🌀 Obsession with theory: The shift from organizing to writing about “Althusser-Lacan-Barthes-Derrida-Foucault” became symptomatic of this detachment (p. 15).

🔵 Feminism and the Limits of Separatism

👭 Women’s radical movements were crucial, but fragmented by internal contradictions and identity politics.

🔍 Sexism within radical groups: Women faced “virulent sexism and bureaucratic elitism” in groups like SDS (p. 15).
🚪 Separatist responses: Groups like Redstockings and New York Radical Feminists emerged, but often led to exclusion and division (p. 15–16).
💔 Fragmentation over unity: Debates over lesbianism, men’s involvement, and personal lifestyles led to the movement’s splintering: “Real political differences manifested themselves in supposedly personal disagreements” (p. 17).

🔕 Loss of democratic structure: Meetings degenerated into confusion and cliquism, exemplified by Bread and Roses’ Meredith Tax: “The meetings were a total turn-off” (Echols 1989, quoted on p. 17).

🟣 Critique of Identity Politics and “Decentered” Solidarity

🧱 Gallagher celebrates the “logic of decentered distribution,” where each group speaks for itself against a system of oppression (p. 17).

❗ Lewis argues this leads to political dead ends: “Every oppression presumed that its particular oppression was causally primary” (p. 17).
🚧 He warns that identity politics, as practiced, became an “anti-politics of identity” leading to fragmentation and “apolitical introspection” (Kauffman 1990: 68).

🟠 Cultural Critique Without Class Is Empty

🎭 Gallagher favors New Historicism’s view that “culture achieves total control through its very fracturing” (p. 19).
🚫 Quietism over resistance: This “seems in itself quietistic,” leading to the belief that resistance is futile (p. 19).
📚 Lewis critiques this position as surrendering the possibility of revolutionary literature in favor of academic relativism.

🟤 New Historicism vs. Left Formalism

📐 Gallagher distances herself from Althusserian formalism but retains some of its apolitical methods: she critiques the idea that “form itself were revelatory” (p. 18).
🧠 Lewis sees New Historicists as combining “a politics of voluntarism with a politics of textualism,” avoiding structural material analysis (p. 18).

🎭 Their emphasis on ironic consciousness promotes passivity, not political change.

⚫ Political Cowardice: No Space for Revolution

🛑 Gallagher claims critics can’t become political subjects without “an experience of decentered helplessness” (p. 21).

📣 Lewis denounces this as academic defeatism. Revolutionary movements have always emerged from those deemed “decentered” by the system.
💥 He asserts that refusing to “argue confidently for revolutionary positions” leads to complicity with the status quo (p. 20–21).

🔶 Rebuilding Class-Based Criticism

🏗️ Lewis calls for returning to socialist, class-oriented criticism—not postmodern detachment.
✊ Key tasks include:
- Challenging Stalinism, Maoism, and Eurocommunism
- Reaffirming the agency of the working class
- Confronting movementism’s limitations
- Re-engaging with Marxist strategies for change (p. 21–22)

🧭 A political alternative to liberal reform must be forged through critical, organized activism—not just “signifying practice.”

⚪ Final Warning: Intellectual Elitism and Technocratic Drift

⚖️ Lewis warns that post-1968 intellectuals increasingly fantasize about “hegemonic leadership roles” in a future society based on “technocratic expertise” (p. 22).

📉 This shift reflects the “abandonment of real politics” in favor of academic careerism and top-down change.

Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis

Term / Concept	Explanation	Usage in the Article with In-text Citation
New Historicism	A literary theory focused on cultural context, discourse, and power.	Lewis critiques it as a mode “best explained in the context of the ‘new middle classes'” that results in “abstract and paralyzing” politics (Lewis, 1991, p. 14).
Marxism	A theory of class struggle and historical materialism.	Upheld by Lewis as necessary for a politically grounded criticism that maintains revolutionary potential (p. 20).
Postmodernism	A skeptical, anti-foundational intellectual mode.	Lewis argues New Historicism is actually modernist in disguise, masking elite detachment as postmodernism (p. 18).
Identity Politics	Political mobilization based on personal or group identity.	Called a “blind alley” that fragments the left: “Each and every oppression presumed that its particular oppression was causally primary” (p. 17).
Class Struggle	The central conflict between social classes under capitalism.	Gallagher denies its primacy, but Lewis states that New Historicists “know” but deny class struggle because they “love capitalism more than they hate it” (p. 20).
Voluntarism	Emphasis on individual willpower in theory or action.	Lewis critiques both Althusserianism and New Historicism for combining “a politics of voluntarism with a politics of textualism” (p. 18).
Textualism	A critical approach centered on close textual analysis at the expense of context.	Criticized as the literary equivalent of economism in theory, detaching literature from real political struggle (p. 18).
Left Formalism	Marxist-influenced literary formalism, especially Althusserian.	Gallagher critiques it for assuming the subversiveness of form; Lewis calls it “unregenerate” and disconnected from historical agency (p. 18–19).
Cultural Materialism	A cultural theory emphasizing the material conditions behind texts.	While not named directly, Lewis’s Marxist position contrasts New Historicism’s refusal to ground cultural critique in class and material forces (p. 20).
Signifying Practice	A theoretical belief that discourse alone enacts change.	Satirized by Lewis: radicals believed “after the intellectuals had published enough essays… the masses would rise upon cue and seize the television stations!” (p. 15).
Substitutionalism	Replacing class struggle with another identity as the central axis of critique.	Lewis criticizes New Left and feminist groups that assumed “liberating women has priority above every other idea” (p. 17).
Decentered Subject	The idea that individuals are fragmented products of discourse and social forces.	Gallagher sees this positively, but Lewis argues it promotes “decentered helplessness” and denies agency (p. 21).
Revolutionary Agency	The capacity of oppressed groups to change their conditions.	Lewis insists on the working class as the agent of change, accusing New Historicists of political cowardice for refusing to defend revolutionary positions (p. 20–22).
Western Marxism	Thinkers like Lukács and the Frankfurt School.	Gallagher appeals to their legacy, but Lewis claims she misrepresents them and trivializes their politics (p. 19).
Technocratic Elitism	Rule or dominance by experts/intellectuals in place of democratic masses.	Critiqued in the article’s conclusion as a fantasy held by post-1968 radicals: “the generation that lost its revolutionary illusions… now secretly fantasizes a hegemonic leadership role” (p. 22).

Contribution of “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis to Literary Theory/Theories

🔴 📌 Reassertion of Historical Materialism in Literary Criticism (Marxist Theory)

Lewis defends Marxist theory as essential for restoring the link between literature and material conditions.

He insists on class struggle as the “crucial contradiction” overlooked by New Historicism, which “knows but denies the primacy of class” (p. 20).
📣 Contribution: Re-centers class and political economy as non-negotiable foundations of literary theory, against post-structural detachment.

🟢 📌 Critique of Postmodernism and Cultural Relativism

While New Historicism claims postmodern lineage, Lewis calls it a disguised form of modernist elitism: “Ultimately modernist in a ‘postmodernist’ guise” (p. 18).
📣 Contribution: Challenges the theoretical legitimacy of postmodernism within literary criticism by exposing its depoliticized, academic core.

🟡 📌 Intervention in the Identity Politics Debate (Cultural Theory / Feminist Theory)

He critiques the fragmentation caused by identity politics, stating it led to “a cycle of fragmentation and diffusion of political energies” (Kauffman 1990:68, cited p. 17).
📣 Contribution: Warns that substituting identity for class undermines collective resistance, calling for theories that integrate both identity and class struggle.

🔵 📌 Deconstruction of New Historicism’s Political Claims (New Historicism)

While acknowledging its influence, Lewis argues that New Historicism’s “ironic detachment” and emphasis on textual multiplicity result in political paralysis (p. 14, 19).
📣 Contribution: Exposes New Historicism’s limitations as a literary-political framework, pushing scholars to rethink its revolutionary pretensions.

🟣 📌 Recovery of Revolutionary Criticism (Critical Theory / Praxis-Based Theories)

Advocates for literary criticism that makes explicit political commitments: “What’s wrong with a political criticism that furthers the struggle for socialism, women’s liberation…?” (p. 20).
📣 Contribution: Reorients literary theory toward activism and movement-building, bridging critique and praxis.

🟠 📌 Re-evaluation of Althusserian Formalism (Structuralist Marxism)

Lewis critiques the “left formalism” of Althusser and Macherey for assuming art’s subversiveness without political grounding (p. 18–19).
📣 Contribution: Suggests that even Marxist formalism must be accountable to historical and revolutionary practice, not just structural reading.

🟤 📌 Challenge to the Academic Co-option of Radicalism (Cultural Studies)

Notes that many radicals “went from radical to radical chic” as academia replaced activism (p. 15).
📣 Contribution: Calls on Cultural Studies to re-engage with its political roots, including trade unionism and working-class alliances.

⚫ 📌 Redefining the Role of the Intellectual (Public Intellectualism / Theory & Politics)

Warns against technocratic elitism: “The generation that lost its revolutionary illusions… fantasizes a hegemonic leadership role in the future society” (p. 22).
📣 Contribution: Urges literary theorists to act as participants, not managers of social transformation.

🔶 📌 Restatement of Collective Agency in Theory (Radical Humanism / Political Literary Theory)

Rejects the idea that “decentered subjects” cannot change the world, noting they have—through revolutions, movements, and uprisings (p. 21).
📣 Contribution: Defends a critical humanism rooted in collective agency, challenging the fatalism of structuralist/poststructuralist models.

Examples of Critiques Through “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis

Literary Work	New Historicist Approach (Critiqued by Lewis)	Marxist Re-interpretation (As Advocated by Lewis)
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest	Focuses on colonial discourse and power through language and performance; emphasizes ambiguity and irony.	Lewis would emphasize Prospero’s domination as reflecting emergent capitalist power and colonial exploitation, calling for revolutionary critique.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper	Seen as a fragmented subject negotiating medical discourse and gender roles in 19th-century America.	A Marxist lens would highlight patriarchal control tied to bourgeois domestic ideology, showing how women’s labor is confined and exploited.
George Orwell’s 1984	Interpreted as a post-structural meditation on surveillance, signification, and discourse.	Lewis’s framework would stress state repression as a product of totalitarian capitalism, urging critique of class surveillance and alienation.
Toni Morrison’s Beloved	Explored through memory, trauma, and discursive constructions of identity in racial history.	A Marxist critique would analyze how slavery functioned as economic exploitation, tying racial oppression to capitalist accumulation and labor value.

🔍 Methodological Note:

These reinterpretations reflect Tom Lewis’s call to:

Reject the ironic detachment of New Historicism.
Restore class struggle, material conditions, and revolutionary potential to literary analysis.
Treat literature not just as “signifying practice” but as part of historical and ideological struggle (Lewis, 1991, pp. 18–22).

Criticism Against “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis

🔴 🧱 Overreliance on Class as the Primary Analytical Lens

Critics might argue that Lewis’s unwavering focus on class struggle ignores the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, and identity.
His Marxist insistence on economic determinism may overlook the complexities of cultural production and subjective experience in literature.

🟡 🔍 Reductionism Toward New Historicism

Lewis presents a monolithic and often dismissive portrayal of New Historicist critics.
He underplays the nuanced, historicized readings of power and ideology offered by New Historicists like Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Gallagher.

🟢 🎭 Mischaracterization of Postmodernism and Irony

His critique that New Historicism promotes “ironic detachment” (p. 14) could be seen as oversimplified.
Postmodern irony, in many readings, serves as resistance, not apathy—contrary to Lewis’s claim that it “paralyzes” political engagement.

🔵 📚 Dismissal of Identity Politics as Fragmentation

Critics might reject Lewis’s claim that identity politics leads to “a cycle of fragmentation” (p. 17).
This view undermines the political realities of marginalized groups, suggesting that their struggles are distractions from the “main” class struggle.

🟣 📏 Dogmatic Marxist Framework

Lewis’s tone at times is rigidly ideological, favoring Leninist class politics as the only legitimate form of literary-political analysis.
This could alienate scholars who seek more pluralistic or hybrid theoretical approaches (e.g., combining feminism, postcolonial theory, or queer theory with Marxism).

🟤 📉 Neglect of Institutional Realities in Academia

Lewis critiques New Left academics for entering the academy, yet offers no practical alternative for how intellectuals should function in institutional spaces.
His dismissal of academic work as “radical chic” (p. 15) may seem cynical and dismissive of genuine pedagogical labor.

⚫ 🎯 Lack of Engagement with Evolving New Historicism

By 1991, New Historicism had already diversified. Lewis does not sufficiently engage newer or more politically committed variations of the approach.
His critique is largely based on a selective reading of Gallagher, without fully addressing scholars like Jameson or Greenblatt’s later work.

🔶 🤝 Missed Opportunity for Theoretical Synthesis

Lewis insists on a clear division between Marxism and New Historicism, but misses chances for synthesis, such as integrating discourse analysis into historical materialism.
Critics might argue that bridging rather than polarizing these traditions could be more productive.

Representative Quotations from “The New Historicism and Marxism” by Tom Lewis with Explanation

Quotation	Explanation
1. “New historicism is best explained in the context of the ‘new middle classes’ and the generalization of a modernist stance of ironic detachment after 1968.” (p. 14)	Lewis critiques New Historicism as a product of a post-1968 intellectual class that retreated into irony and cultural abstraction rather than revolutionary politics.
2. “They quickly went from radical to radical chic.” (p. 15)	Describes how 1960s radicals became absorbed into academia, losing their political edge and becoming part of a depoliticized professional class.
3. “This contraction [of New Left practice] was often justified by appeal to what may qualify as the New Left’s most colossal failure of analysis: namely, its romanticizing of the Chinese cultural revolution.” (p. 15)	Lewis critiques how leftist intellectuals prioritized theory (especially structuralist and post-structuralist theory) over grounded political activism.
4. “The feminist movement was therefore diffused and splintered: because of its legacy from the movements; because of its avoidance of political argument; and because of its orientation on personal lifestyles.” (p. 16)	He criticizes the feminist movement’s internal divisions and its drift toward lifestyle politics and separatism instead of collective class struggle.
5. “Gallagher’s argument thus ‘knows’ but denies the primacy of class struggle.” (p. 20)	Lewis accuses New Historicism, via Gallagher, of implicitly acknowledging but refusing to embrace class-based politics and revolution.
6. “Left-wing critics would concede that new historicists often read the right texts and ask the right questions, but they complain that such readings yield the wrong answers.” (p. 19)	Highlights how New Historicists raise significant issues but ultimately defuse them by avoiding commitment to radical outcomes.
7. “New historicists sign on as collaborationists.” (p. 19)	A stark condemnation—Lewis argues that New Historicism, by downplaying literature’s subversive potential, aligns with the dominant culture rather than challenging it.
8. “What’s wrong with an explicitly political criticism that says… ‘I have nonetheless decided to persuade you… in some small way [to] further the struggle for socialism, women’s liberation, an end to racism, etc.’?” (p. 20)	Lewis advocates for political criticism that openly pursues radical social goals, rejecting neutrality or detachment.
9. “The effort of this criticism has been to trace the creation of modern subjectivity in the necessary failures of the effort to produce a stable subject.” (p. 21)	He critiques New Historicism’s notion of the fractured subject, implying it fosters political passivity by denying agency and coherent identity.
10. “The generation that lost its revolutionary illusions… now secretly fantasizes a hegemonic leadership role in the future society on the basis of their knowledge and technocratic expertise.” (p. 22)	He accuses post-1968 intellectuals of abandoning revolution in favor of elitist visions of top-down transformation led by academics and professionals.

“Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen: Summary and Critique

“Cultural Studies in the Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen first appeared in 2019 in the journal Cultural Studies (Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 68–74), published by Taylor & Francis.

Introduction: “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen

“Cultural Studies in the Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen first appeared in 2019 in the journal Cultural Studies (Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 68–74), published by Taylor & Francis. This pivotal essay marks a significant contribution to contemporary literary and cultural theory by reasserting the radical contextualism and temporality at the heart of the cultural studies project. Framed as a tribute to Lawrence Grossberg, the piece critiques static understandings of “the present” and instead insists on its construction through complex, contingent arrangements of power and meaning. Behrenshausen emphasizes that cultural studies is not merely about the now but is committed to understanding the political stakes of narrating “what’s going on” at any given moment. Through the provocative questions Grossberg posed—”What is old? What is new? What is rearticulated?”—the essay underscores cultural studies’ refusal to reduce cultural forces to singular explanations and its capacity for endless reflexive adaptation. As Behrenshausen writes, cultural studies theorizes even the “conditions of its own demise,” highlighting its uniquely self-interrogative posture within intellectual traditions. The article draws from foundational thinkers like Raymond Williams, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, and Deleuze, positioning itself as both a methodological guide and a theoretical reflection on the evolving role of cultural studies amid shifting conjunctures.

Summary of “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen

🔴 Radical Contextualism as a Methodological Core

Cultural Studies is grounded in radical contextualism — the refusal to accept anything as fixed, final, or given.

✨ “It accepts nothing as given, nothing as final, nothing as fixed, nothing as permanent – everything as contingent (and yet no less real or effective for being so)” (Behrenshausen, 2019, p. 69; citing Grossberg, 2010, p. 20).
Cultural Studies begins with the question: “What is going on?”, borrowing Marvin Gaye’s lyric as a foundational inquiry.

🟡 Conjunctural Analysis: Always Situated, Never Singular

Cultural Studies analyzes conjunctures—the complex arrangements of historical, political, and cultural forces at work in a given moment.
🌐 “Cultural Studies is nothing if not conjunctural, if not attentive to the particular arrangement of forces aligned precisely this way” (p. 68).
There is sustained skepticism toward any theory that tries to explain culture through a single “motor force.”

🟢 Temporal Focus: The Present as an Object of Analysis

Cultural Studies is radically presentist—focused on how the present is constructed and felt.
⏳ “Temporality itself [is] a conjunctural phenomenon” shaped by arrangements of forces (p. 70).

🕰️ “What’s old? What’s new? What’s rearticulated?” become central analytic tools (Grossberg, 2010, p. 60).

🔵 Good Stories vs. Ideological Comfort

The goal is not to reaffirm political beliefs, but to narrate the present in ways that open new possibilities.

🗣️ “A story isn’t ‘better’ if it merely allows researchers to express their uninterrogated political positions… A story is ‘better’ if it’s most attentive to the concrete and specific conditions of a conjuncture” (p. 69).
📚 Better stories “make more seeable and sayable” (Deleuze, 1988; cited on p. 69).

🟣 Historicizing the Present Without Linear Time

Cultural Studies treats time as layered and nonlinear, embracing Raymond Williams’ concept of “structure of feeling.”
💫 “The present is what’s ‘already happened’ and ‘what’s going to happen’… they set a cadence” (Williams, 1977, pp. 121–127, cited on p. 70).
Even what appears new is often a rearticulation of past forces.

🟠 Theorizing Its Own Demise

Cultural Studies theorizes the conditions of its own obsolescence, adapting continually to shifting contexts.
🔄 “It also recognizes the limits of any engaged intellectual practice to be the limits of the very context that produces and demands that practice” (p. 71).

As Grossberg (1988) argues, Cultural Studies is inherently scandalous to traditional disciplines because it offers no universal theory—only temporary, tactical ones.

🟤 The Present as a Constructed and Political Space

Drawing from Foucault and Kant, Behrenshausen explains the present as a constructed mode of “belonging and task” (Foucault, 2010, p. 39).

🧠 “The present is effective only insofar as social actors connect to it as part of their strategies for continuing to exist in it” (p. 71).

⚫ Cultural Studies as Comportment, Not Method

It’s not a single theory or method, but a way of inhabiting the roles of scholar, teacher, and artist.

📍 “Cultural Studies is neither a theory of the present nor a method… It is a comportment toward the present-as-effective-construction” (p. 72; citing Grossberg, 2010, p. 9).
It resists finality, refusing to “settle” into fixed academic roles or canons.

Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen

Theoretical Term / Concept	Usage in the Article
Radical Contextualism	Describes the fundamental orientation of cultural studies—nothing is taken as fixed, all meaning is contingent upon context. “It accepts nothing as given… everything as contingent (and yet no less real or effective for being so)” (p. 69).
Conjuncture / Conjunctural Analysis	Cultural Studies analyzes the present as a specific constellation of forces. “Cultural Studies is nothing if not conjunctural” (p. 68). Each moment is shaped by intersecting, historical, political, and cultural pressures.
Presentism / Radical Presentism	The essay asserts that Cultural Studies is committed to the analysis of the present—not by ignoring history, but by understanding the now as historically constituted. “Cultural Studies’ embrace of radical contextualism is also a penchant for radical presentism” (p. 70).
Structure of Feeling (from Raymond Williams)	Used to describe how multiple temporalities and emotional tones intersect in a given moment. “That structure consists of crisscrossing temporal hues that bend and bleed to saturate a conjuncture” (p. 70).
Rearticulation	Key concept borrowed from Grossberg; highlights how cultural elements can be recombined in new ways. Larry says, “Everything is rearticulated” (p. 70).
Political History of the Present	A goal of Cultural Studies—to create stories that explain the power dynamics of the present moment. “To make sense of the complexities of contemporary culture… to tell better stories about the world than those we already have” (Rodman, 2013, p. 352; cited on p. 69).
Banality	Referenced from Seigworth and Morris—what is seen as mundane or ordinary is often politically meaningful. The “banal” carries historic and cultural weight (p. 71).
Obsolescence / Theorizing Its Own Demise	Cultural Studies is reflexive; it constantly reexamines and critiques itself. “Cultural Studies essentially theorizes the conditions of its own demise!” (p. 71).
Comportment	A way of inhabiting intellectual life—not a method, but a disposition toward the world. “Cultural Studies is neither a theory of the present nor a method… it is a comportment toward the present-as-effective-construction” (p. 72).
Attitude (from Kant and Foucault)	The “present” is framed as an attitude or mode of engaging with reality, not just a temporal location. “A way of thinking and feeling… a way of acting and behaving” (Foucault, 2010, p. 39; cited on p. 71).

Contribution of “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen to Literary Theory/Theories

🔴 Cultural Materialism / Marxist Literary Theory

Emphasizes that meaning and cultural forms are shaped by conjunctures—constellations of political, social, and historical forces.
📍 “Cultural Studies refuses… the overmastering influence of any immediate and singular force… [and] treats everything… as resources for unpacking and explicating the complexity of those forces” (p. 68).
📘 Contributes to Marxist literary theory by expanding Raymond Williams’ idea of structures of feeling as dynamic and non-linear (Williams, 1977).

🟡 Poststructuralism / Deconstruction

Questions the stability of historical categories and challenges essentialist readings of “the present” or “truth”.
🌀 “Nothing is final, nothing is fixed, nothing is permanent – everything is contingent” (p. 69).

📘 Engages poststructuralist skepticism of fixed narratives and embraces Foucauldian historicity.

🟢 Narrative Theory / Storytelling as Political Praxis

Argues for the power of “better stories” to reframe cultural and political realities.

📖 “Better stories make more seeable and sayable” (p. 69; citing Deleuze, 1988).
📘 This supports narrative theory in emphasizing the politics of storytelling and representation.

🔵 Temporality and Historicism

Develops a complex, layered understanding of time in cultural analysis.
⏳ “What’s old? What’s new? What’s rearticulated?… The present is what’s ‘already happened’ and ‘what’s going to happen'” (p. 70).
📘 Advances new historicist and temporal theory by resisting linear temporality and stressing conjunctural time.

🟣 Cultural Studies as Intellectual Work (Stuart Hall’s Legacy)

Reinforces Hall’s distinction between academic and intellectual labor.
📚 “Cultural Studies is a disposition… ‘intellectual’ work that may or may not occur in an ‘academic’ setting” (p. 72; citing Hall, 1992, p. 286).

📘 Broadens the boundaries of literary criticism to include affective, political, and interdisciplinary practice.

🟠 Reflexivity and Anti-Canon Formation

Challenges the idea of stable theoretical canons by insisting Cultural Studies is always “theorizing its own demise.”

🔁 “Cultural Studies… must continuously question its positions in the light of emergent political and historical challenges” (p. 72; citing Grossberg, 1988, p. 7).
📘 Influences anti-canon and anti-essentialist theories by prioritizing adaptability and self-critique.

🟤 Critical Theory and the Role of the Intellectual

Suggests a rethinking of the scholar’s role—not as neutral observer but as active participant in shaping the present.
🎓 “Cultural Studies is a comportment toward the present-as-effective-construction” (p. 72).
📘 This reframes the critical theorist as someone embedded in power struggles and cultural reconfigurations.

⚫ Literary Studies as Conjunctural Practice

Invites literary critics to consider texts not as autonomous objects, but as moments within historical conjunctures.
🧩 “Cultural Studies is the study of the contemporary, the way a given conjunctural configuration defines the conditions of life within it” (p. 71).

📘 Aligns with contextual and ideological criticism in literary studies.

Examples of Critiques Through “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen

Literary Work	Critique Through “Cultural Studies in the Present Tense”	Key Concept Applied
George Orwell’s 1984	Instead of reading Orwell’s dystopia as purely Cold War propaganda, a conjunctural analysis would treat 1984 as a product of intersecting fears around surveillance, fascism, and media manipulation. It also invites rearticulation in the post-9/11 context of digital surveillance.	🟡 Conjuncture 🔁 Rearticulation
Toni Morrison’s Beloved	Rather than reducing it to a historical novel about slavery, a radical contextualist reading would examine how the novel disrupts dominant narratives of Black suffering and memory in ways that speak directly to present racialized trauma.	🔴 Radical Contextualism 🕰️ History of the Present
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale	Applying Behrenshausen’s framework shows how the novel constructs a “better story” that critically narrates patriarchal power and religious fundamentalism—not as universal themes, but as formations specific to late 20th-century U.S. culture and revived in today’s reproductive politics.	📚 Better Stories 🧠 Temporality as Construct
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go	The novel can be read through the lens of cultural studies’ concern with what’s “sayable and seeable.” The narrative’s suppression of outrage over cloning reflects the banal normalization of biopolitics, rearticulated through neoliberal care systems.	🟤 Banality ⚫ Structure of Feeling

Criticism Against “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen

🔴 Theoretical Ambiguity

While the essay celebrates radical contextualism, it risks becoming too vague or anti-systematic.

❗ “Nothing is fixed” can lead to theoretical relativism, where no position can be critically evaluated or defended rigorously.
Critics might argue it avoids providing a clear analytic toolkit, making it hard to apply across disciplines or cases.

🟡 Methodological Uncertainty

Behrenshausen explicitly states that Cultural Studies is not a method but a comportment—a stance or disposition.
❓ This can be frustrating for scholars seeking more concrete research strategies or analytical steps.
The lack of methodological clarity could make it difficult to teach or standardize as a critical practice.

🟢 Presentism and Historical Flattening

While the essay insists it doesn’t abandon history, its emphasis on the “now” risks downplaying historical depth or longue durée structures.
🕰️ Critics might ask: Does this “radical presentism” ignore enduring ideologies and economic systems that transcend individual conjunctures?

🔵 Over-Reliance on Grossberg’s Voice

The essay is shaped as a tribute to Lawrence Grossberg, and while intellectually rich, it can feel too anchored in one thinker’s legacy.
📘 Critics may note the need for a more diverse theoretical genealogy, incorporating other voices beyond Grossberg and Hall.

🟣 Insularity of Cultural Studies Jargon

The text uses dense terms like rearticulation, conjuncture, structure of feeling, often without unpacking them for broader audiences.
🧩 This makes the essay less accessible to newcomers, potentially reinforcing the critique that Cultural Studies is “too self-referential.”

🟠 Lack of Concrete Cultural Examples

The article reflects more on theory and pedagogy than actual texts or cultural artifacts.
📉 For a piece about narrating “better stories,” there’s a surprising absence of applied analysis of literature, media, or politics.

⚫ Perpetual Reflexivity = Paralysis?

Constantly “theorizing its own demise” might be intellectually virtuous—but some critics argue it leads to strategic indecision.
🔄 When everything is always shifting and rearticulated, what can Cultural Studies actually do besides comment on its own limits?

Representative Quotations from “Cultural Studies In The Present Tense” by Bryan G. Behrenshausen with Explanation

Quotation	Explanation
“Cultural Studies is nothing if not conjunctural.” (p. 68)	This central claim asserts that Cultural Studies is fundamentally about analyzing specific, contingent combinations of cultural, historical, and political forces.
“Good stories tell us what’s goin’ on.” (p. 69)	Quoting Grossberg via Marvin Gaye, Behrenshausen argues that the best critical analyses illuminate the present moment by narrating its underlying complexities.
“Nothing is final, nothing is fixed, nothing is permanent – everything as contingent (and yet no less real or effective for being so).” (p. 69)	This articulates the core principle of radical contextualism: that everything must be understood in flux, yet still as meaningful and impactful.
“Everything is rearticulated.” (p. 70)	A powerful claim suggesting that cultural forms and meanings are never static; they’re constantly being recombined and recontextualized.
“What’s new? What’s old? What’s rearticulated?” (Grossberg 2010, p. 60)	These are the guiding questions of a conjunctural approach. Behrenshausen presents them as essential to understanding the political present.
“Better stories make more seeable and sayable.” (p. 69; referencing Deleuze)	Invokes the power of narrative to expand political and cultural imagination—showing what might otherwise remain invisible or unspeakable.
“Cultural Studies essentially theorizes the conditions of its own demise!” (p. 71)	A key theoretical provocation—Cultural Studies is so self-reflexive that it interrogates the very context that allows it to exist, even if that means destabilizing itself.
“Cultural Studies is a comportment toward the present-as-effective-construction.” (p. 72)	Cultural Studies is framed not as a rigid methodology, but as a way of being intellectually present in the world—responsive and engaged.
“The present is effective only insofar as social actors connect to it as part of their strategies for continuing to exist in it.” (p. 71)	Emphasizes the constructed, strategic nature of how individuals and groups inhabit “the present.”
“What worked when today was tomorrow certainly won’t work when today becomes yesterday.” (p. 71)	A poetic way of explaining the demand for continuous theoretical adaptation within Cultural Studies. What was once useful must be reassessed as contexts change.