At the very beginning, Eagleton attempts to convince readers of the relationship between literature and ideology, which he believes that literature “is an ideology.” Eagleton begins by talking about how religion, in the past, successfully acted as a unifying social ideology for people of all nations. Religion, throughout the world, had the ability to bring people of all ages, gender, and social classes together. Unfortunately, human development had put a halt on religion’s role as the unifying ideology, and English literature has taking its place.

I can’t disagree that English literature may be the ideology that can completely replace religion, but I believe that religion isn’t out of the game just yet. Eagleton implies that religion is no longer a viable ideology, and it can no longer serve that role with respect to the changing time and society. I cannot completely agree or disagree, but I’d like to say that religion is still strong as an ideology. Religion, I would say, is still held strongly in many parts of the world today, even (especially) in the United States. It is without a doubt that the number of followers of religion has decayed since the prime at which religion stood, but its influence still remains strong. I say so because religion, without a doubt, plays a significant role in the United States’ presidential elections. The United States have yet to have an atheist president, and the likely reason is that, as a presidential candidate, it is advantageous to have a group of religion affiliates to vote for him. Simply by declaring himself to be of a certain religion, he will gain supporters from that religion. I can’t provide any statistics regarding the role of religion in presidential elections, but I’m certain that it is relevant enough to impact the outcome of an election. Simply put, religion still has the ability to unify different groups within a nation.

On another note, English literature is broad and has a wide range of applications. Eagleton supports its flexibility and how it appeals to all types of people, whether it be people of different social classes, a man or a woman, even people of different religions; literature is for everyone. That is precisely why English literature has the potential to replace religion as the ideal ideology.

In concurrence to Eagleton, I would like to emphasize the versatility of literature. Religion, unlike literature, follows monolithic values which will (probably) remain static till the end of time. On the other hand, literature continues to expand, change, adapt, improve over the course of time. With sheer flexibility, as well as mobility, literature will, perhaps, continue to dominate religion as an ideology.

Notes on T.S. Eliot’s Tradition and the Individual Talent

T.S. Eliot argues a very interesting point in his piece Tradition and the Individual Talent. Tradition, T.S. Eliot mentions, is defined as something that has a historicial significance to it. It involves the writing of his own generation and the historical writings throughout all of Europe. He speaks about “simultaneous order” as something that includes the writing of the past but also his own writing which together make tradition, but also allows the writer to become more aware of his modernity. What I believe T.S. Eliot also means by simultaneous order is that, in short, the new affects the old completely readjusting the past and completely joining the new and old ideas. T.S. Eliot
What interests me the most is this idea of “consciousness” and “depersonalization”. This consciousness Eliot speaks of is the awareness in which his mind develops with the art of Homer or Shakespeare and intertwines with his own. I can’t quite grasp this idea of the consciousness of the past within itself. When developing the consciousness of the past, the writer “surrenders himself” by detaching his personality. When you detach your personality from your art as you continue to develop consciousness, you allow the readers to see ‘impersonal poetry’ that speaks for itself without having to go into great depth or show any emotions. “the business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all” (Eliot, Pg. 8). When you detach yourself from creating personal writing, you escape from the emotions. There is great difficulty understanding this idea of the “present moment of the past”, but throughout this passage T.S. Eliot clearly argues for the impersonal writing (and detachment from poetry) to create a greater piece of work. Poetry should be impersonal rather than a mix of emotions and experiences.