"For anyone forced to wrestle with the likes of Derrida, Barthes, and Kristeva during their college days, Terry Eagleton needs no introduction. His primer on literary theory was (and remains) an indispensable guide to the postmodern era in the humanities. Now he argues that the age of cultural theory has come to a close - and looks at what should follow. Tracing the rise and fall of postmodern ideas from the 1960s through the 1990s, Eagleton explores the factors that brought them to the forefront, and with characteristic wit, offers a candid assessment of the resultant gains and losses." "As After Theory argues, rather than shy away from big questions and grand narratives, today's global political situation demands we pay attention to a range of topics that have largely gone ignored by the academy and public alike - from fundamentalism to objectivity, religion to ethics, being to non-being."--BOOK JACKET.