Terry Eagleton Quotes about Understanding

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Reading is not a straightforward linear movement, a merely cumulative affair: our initial speculations generate a frame of reference within which to interpret what comes next, but what comes next may retrospectively

Reading is not a straightforward linear movement, a merely cumulative affair: our initial speculations generate a frame of reference within which to interpret what comes next, but what comes next may retrospectively transform our original understanding, highlighting some features of it and backgrounding others.

Terry Eagleton

Reading, Understanding, Movement

Terry Eagleton (2011). “Literary Theory: An Introduction”, p.67, John Wiley & Sons

Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night.

Terry Eagleton

Night, Understanding, Owl

Terry Eagleton (2008). “Literary Theory: An Introduction”, p.190, U of Minnesota Press

All communication involves faith; indeed, some linguisticians hold that the potential obstacles to acts of verbal understanding are so many and diverse that it is a minor miracle that they take place at all.

Terry Eagleton

Communication, Miracle, Understanding

Terry Eagleton (2014). “Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate”, p.117, Yale University Press