This momentous study of Benjamins critical practice marks a sea change in Eagletons thought. Its goal is not merely to contemplate Benjamins approach to language, history, and art but to chart a dynamic new course for contemporary socialist criticism. To do this, Eagleton brushes Benjamins Trauerspiel against seventeenth-century British literature, tests his concept of the aura against Freud and Lacan, and undertakes his most sustained engagement with Derrida and the political crossroads of deconstruction.