51³Ô¹Ï

IN HIS eagerness to agree with Terry Eagleton's moralising strictures against postmodernism's supposedly arbitrary relativism, Peter Aspden (THES, February 28) did not mention that Eagleton himself is a postmodern subject.

The name "Terry Eagleton" is a floating signifier that has referred to a "radical" Catholic, an orthodox New Leftist, an Althusserian, a Benjaminian, a power, a playwright, an "Irish" cultural historian, and now a severe moralist. Since his writing style has changed alongside, future scholars may disagree over whether the one comparative constant - wit - is enough to confirm that the name was that of a single human being. Eagleton's constant reinvention of himself renders his advocacy of absolutes as much a tactic of postmodern presentism as are the intellectual fashions he derides.

Andrew Blake King Alfred's College Winchester