Terry Eagleton's work has had a powerful influence in debates about the politics of literature and culture. His writings have had a marked impact too on how these subjects are taught and studied. Always maintaining a clear sense of political goal, his work has ranged widely in subject and in method. This book reflects the breadth of his interests. It offers a view of his career to date, raising a number of central issues in literature, culture and politics. It includes a discussion of the nature and function of literary theory today and in a major new essay on Adorno, offers a glimpse of Eagleton's current work on the contradictory status of art in modern society and the relations between the aesthetic and the political. The Significance of Theory reflects too the author's versatility of style and approach. It will appeal at once to more general readers and to specialists in literary theory.