Eagleton identifies at least three reasons why “cultural theory must start thinking ambitiously once again”: 1) Capitalism has entered what could be its most ‘totalizing’ phase – it has become global and ruthless, 2) “The gang of predatory, semi-literate philistines” and “semi-fanatical fundamentalists” who rule the United States are in danger of ending history “for real”, and finally, 3) The West is under pressure to justify its way of life in [the] face of the Islamic fundamentalist challenge. It is ironic, Eagleton thinks, that “at just the point that we have begun to think small, history has begun to act big.”

Abdelkader Aoudjit discusses Terry Eagleton’s take on what comes after postmodernism. After Theory by Terry Eagleton