Paul de Man – författare

This important theoretical work by Paul de Man sets forth a mode of reading and interpretation based on exemplary texts by Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust.  The readings start from unresolved difficulties in the critical traditions engendered by these authors, and they return to the places in the text where those difficulties are most apparent or most incisively reflected upon.  The close reading leads to the elaboration of a more general model of textual understanding, in which de Man shows that the thematic aspects of the texts—their assertions of truth or falsehood as well as their assertions of values—are linked to specific modes of figuration that can be identified and described.  The description of synchronic figures of substitution leads, by an inner logic embedded in the structure of all tropes, to extended, narrative figures or allegories.  De Man poses the question whether such self-generating systems of figuration can account fully for the intricacies of meaning and of signification they produce. Throughout the book, issues in contemporary criticism are addressed analytically rather than polemically.  Traditional oppositions are put in question by a rhetorical analysis which demonstrates why literary texts are such powerful sources of meaning yet epistemologically so unreliable.  Since the structure which underlies this tension belongs to language in general and is not confined to literary texts, the book, starting out as practical and historical criticism or as the demonstration of a theory of literary reading, leads into larger questions pertaining to the philosophy of language. "Through elaborate and elegant close readings of poems by Rilke, Proust’s Remembrance, Nietzsche’s philosophical writings and the major works of Rousseau, de Man concludes that all writing concerns itself with its own activity as language, and language, he says, is always unreliable, slippery, impossible….Literary narrative, because it must rely on language, tells the story of its own inability to tell a story....De Man demonstrates, beautifully and convincingly, that language turns back on itself, that rhetoric is untrustworthy."—Julia Epstein, Washington Post Book World"The study follows out of the thinking of Nietzsche and Genette (among others), yet moves in strikingly new directions....De Man’s text, almost certain to be endlessly provocative, is worthy of repeated re-reading."—Ralph Flores, Library Journal"Paul de Man continues his work in the tradition of ‘deconstructionist criticism,’… [which] begins with the observation that all language is constructed; therefore the task of criticism is to deconstruct it and reveal what lies behind. The title of his new work reflects de Man’s preoccupation with the unreliability of language. … The contributions that the book makes, both in the initial theoretical chapters and in the detailed analyses (or deconstructions) of particular texts are undeniable."—Caroline D. Eckhardt, World Literature Today

This last work by Paul de Man before his death in 1983 brings together what is essentially his complete work on the study of European Romanticism and post-Romanticism.

In Blindness and Insight, de Man examines several critics and finds in their writings a gap between their statements about the nature of literature and the results of their practical criticism. Not only are the critics unaware of this gap, says de Man, but their blindness to it often leads to some of their most valuable insights. The central issue of de Man's work is the rhetorical constitution of the text, and this book, with its new introduction by Wlad Godzich and five additional essays by de Man, is meant to challenge readers to a new appreciation of their chosen task as readers of literature. Included in this new edition are the original essays on Binswanger, Poulet, Lukas, Blanchot, the New Critics, and Derrida's `of Grammatology', as well as five more: `The Rhetoric of Temporality', `The Dead-End of Formalist Criticism', `Heidegger's Exegesis of Holderlin', a review of Bloom's `Anxiety of Influence, and `Literature and Language'.

A collection of critical texts from Paul de Man's Harvard University years, published for the first timeThese essays, brought together from the Paul de Man papers at the University of California (Irvine), make a significant contribution to the cultural history of deconstruction and the present state of literary theory. From 1955 to 1961, Paul de Man was Junior Fellow at Harvard University where he wrote a doctoral thesis entitled 'The Post-Romantic Predicament: a study in the poetry of Mallarmé and Yeats'. This dissertation is presented alongside his other texts from this period, including essays on Hölderlin, Keats and Stefan George. This collection reflects familiar concerns for de Man: the figurative dimension of language, the borders between philosophy and literature, the ideological obfuscations of Romanticism, and the difficulties of the North American heritage of New Criticism.Key Features: • The first collection of texts by Paul de Man published since the posthumous Aesthetic Ideology (1997)• The missing link in the published de Man corpus• With an introduction by Martin McQullian, a leading de Man scholar

In occupied Belgium during World War II, Paul de Man (1919-1983) wrote music, lecture, and exhibition reviews, a regular book column, interviews, and articles on cultural politics for the Brussels daily newspaper Le Soir. From December 1940 until he resigned in November 1942, de Man contributed almost 200 articles to this and another newspaper, both then controlled by Nazi sympathizers and vocal advocates of the "new order." Later to become one of the most respected and influential literary theorists in America, de Man, then 21 and 22 years old, wrote primarily as the chief literary critic for Le Soir. His weekly column reviewed the latest novels and poetry from Belgium, France, Germany, and England. De Man commented extensively on major propaganda expositions, and interviewed leading writers and cultural figures, including Paul Valery and the future Vichy Education minister Abel Bonnard.The political extremes of de Man's wartime writing are marked by two articles. His single anti-Semitic article, "Les Juifs dans la litterature actuelle" (4 March 1941), acquiesces in the deportation of Jews to "a Jewish colony isolated from Europe." But de Man later argued in defense of a Resistance-linked journal ("A propos de la revue Messages," 14 July 1942) against the "totalitarian" censors' "unconsidered attacks."This volume reprints in facsimile all of de Man's articles in Le Soir as well as three articles he wrote prior to the occupation in 1940 as editor of the liberal Cahiers du Libre Examen. It also includes English translations of the ten articles written in Flemmish for the Antwerp paper Het Vlaamsche Land, in March-October 1942. The collection appears under the auspices of the Oxford Literary Review, England's leading theoretical journal for over a decade.

First published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Explores reasons why the theoretical enterprise is blind to, or “resists,” the radical nature of reading, in six essays that offer a new level of critical and cultural understanding in reference to the works of Jauss, Riffaterre, Benjamin, and Bakhtin.In a brilliant collection of essays, de Man explores his views, that, the resistance to theory is inherent in the theoretical enterprise itself, and the real debate is with its own methodological assumptions and possibilities.“Indispensable. . . . There is resistance to ‘theory’ and also confusion about its status with reference to both philosophy and criticism.” -Frank Kermode, Columbia University

Twenty-five essays and reviews not previously collected, most of which were written before 1970, and eight of which are appearing in English for the first time. Valuable for the insights they afford into his development as a critic the essays are also significant in addressing de Man’s consistent views of romanticism, modernism and the dilemmas central to literature in recent centuries.

An important reconsideration of ideology by one of this century’s most eminent theorists.This long-awaited volume by one of the major figures of twentieth-century thought represents perhaps the most provocative, serious, and important rethinking of “ideology” since the publication of Althusser's essays in the 1960s and 1970s. Aesthetic Ideology offers the definitive resource to de Man's thoughts on philosophy, politics, and history. The core of Aesthetic Ideology is a rigorous inquiry into the relation of rhetoric, epistemology, and aesthetics, one that presents radical notions of materiality. De Man reads Kant and Hegel with a combination of philosophical rigor, interpretive pressure, speculative daring, and ironic good humor that is unique to him, ultimately reaching the heart of philosophical aesthetics. The texts collected here were written or delivered as lectures during the last years of de Man's life, between 1977 and 1983. Many of them have never been available previously in any form; these include essays on Kant's materialism, his relation to Schiller, and the concept of irony. A culmination of de Man's thinking on these central issues, Aesthetic Ideology is a necessary and vital component of your humanities bookshelf. ContentsIntroduction: Allegories of ReferenceThe Epistemology of MetaphorPascal's Allegory of PersuasionPhenomenality and Materiality in KantSign and Symbol in Hegel's AestheticsHegel on the SublimeKant's MaterialismKant and SchillerThe Concept of IronyReply to Raymond Geuss

In Blindness and Insight, de Man examines several critics and finds in their writings a gap between their statements about the nature of literature and the results of their practical criticism. Not only are the critics unaware of this gap, says de Man, but their blindness to it often leads to some of their most valuable insights. The central issue of de Man's work is the rhetorical constitution of the text, and this book, with its new introduction by Wlad Godzich and five additional essays by de Man, is meant to challenge readers to a new appreciation of their chosen task as readers of literature. Included in this new edition are the original essays on Binswanger, Poulet, Lukas, Blanchot, the New Critics, and Derrida's `of Grammatology', as well as five more: `The Rhetoric of Temporality', `The Dead-End of Formalist Criticism', `Heidegger's Exegesis of Holderlin', a review of Bloom's `Anxiety of Influence, and `Literature and Language'.