# Quote — Terry Eagleton, After Theory

> "In some traditionalist universities not long ago, you could not research on authors who were still alive. This was a great incentive to slip a knife between their ribs one foggy evening, or a remarkable test of patience if your chosen novelist was in rude health and only 34".

- Author: [Terry Eagleton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton.md)
- Book: [After Theory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton/after-theory.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton#After_Theory_(2003)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton/after-theory/in-some-traditionalist

## More from this book

> "Cultural theory as we have it promises to grapple with some fundamental problems, but on the whole fails to deliver. It has been shamefaced about morality and metaphysics, embarrassed about love, biology, religion and revolution, largely silent about evil, reticent about death and suffering, dogmatic about essences, universals and foundations, and superficial about truth, objectivity and disinterestedness. This, on any estimate, is rather a large slice of human existence to fall down on. It is also, as we have suggested before, rather an awkward moment in history to find oneself with little or nothing to say about such fundamental questions."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton/after-theory/cultural-theory-as-we-have.md)