The most common mistake students of literature make is to go straight for what the poem or novel says, setting aside the way that it says it. To read like this is to set aside the โliterarinessโ of the work โ the fact that it is a poem or play or novel, rather than an account of the incidence of soil erosion in Nebraska.
Terry EagletonEvil is unintelligible. It is just a thing in itself, like boarding a crowded commuter train wearing only a giant boa constrictor. There is no context which would make it explicable.
Terry EagletonLike the rest of us, Tom Paulin is a bundle of contradictions. At its finest, his work is brave, adventurous, original and wonderfully idiosyncratic.
Terry EagletonWith fiction, you can talk about plot, character and narrative, whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.
Terry EagletonMan eternally tries to get back to an organic past that has slipped just beyond his reach.
Terry Eagleton