Paul de Man, a key figure in literary theory, pioneered deconstructive approaches to reading. His work challenged traditional notions of textual meaning and interpretation, emphasizing the inherent instability of language and the limits of understanding.

De Man's ideas on rhetoric, unreadability, and allegory reshaped literary criticism. Despite posthumous controversies surrounding his wartime writings, his influence on the Yale School and broader literary theory remains significant, sparking ongoing debates about language, meaning, and interpretation.

Life and career of Paul de Man

Early life in Belgium

• Born in 1919 in Antwerp, Belgium to a prosperous family
• Studied at the Free University of Brussels and the University of Liège
• Developed an early interest in philosophy and literature, particularly the works of Nietzsche and Heidegger
• Worked as a journalist and book reviewer in Belgium during the late 1930s and early 1940s

Wartime journalism controversy

• Wrote for collaborationist newspapers in Belgium during the Nazi occupation (Le Soir)
• Authored articles expressing anti-Semitic views and supporting the Nazi regime
• Controversy surrounding these writings emerged posthumously in 1987, sparking debates about de Man's intellectual legacy
• Defenders argue his later work represents a break from these early views, while critics see continuities in his thought

Academic career in the US

• Emigrated to the United States in 1948 and began teaching French literature at Bard College
• Taught at Harvard University and Cornell University before joining the faculty at Yale University in 1970
• Became a leading figure in the Yale School of deconstruction alongside colleagues like J. Hillis Miller and Geoffrey Hartman
• Played a key role in introducing and popularizing deconstruction in the US through his teaching and writing

Key ideas and theories

Rhetoric vs literature

• Argues for the primacy of rhetoric over literature, seeing literary texts as fundamentally rhetorical constructs
• Challenges the traditional hierarchy that privileges literature as a superior mode of language use
• Asserts that the rhetorical dimension of language is inescapable and undermines any stable meaning or truth claims in texts
• Views the study of literature as inseparable from the study of rhetoric and the instability of language

Deconstruction and unreadability

• Develops a deconstructive approach to reading that emphasizes the inherent instability and undecidability of textual meaning
• Argues that texts contain irreconcilable tensions, contradictions, and aporias that render them ultimately "unreadable"
• Sees the task of criticism as exposing these internal conflicts and resisting any final, authoritative interpretation
• Challenges the possibility of a fully coherent or self-consistent reading of a text, stressing the limits of interpretation

Blindness and insight

• Introduces the concept of "blindness and insight" to describe the necessary blindness that accompanies any critical insight
• Suggests that every act of interpretation involves a certain blindness to its own assumptions and limitations
• Argues that critics are always implicated in the very structures they seek to analyze and critique
• Emphasizes the inescapable partiality and situatedness of all critical perspectives

Allegories of reading

• Develops a theory of reading centered on the notion of allegory, which he sees as the fundamental structure of language
• Views texts as allegories of their own unreadability, constantly gesturing towards a meaning they can never fully attain
• Argues that the act of reading itself is an allegorical process, a perpetual deferral of meaning
• Sees allegory not as a specific literary device but as the very condition of language and interpretation

Influences on de Man's thought

Nietzsche and nihilism

• Draws on Nietzsche's critique of truth and his notion of the fundamentally metaphorical nature of language
• Shares Nietzsche's suspicion of stable identities and essentialist notions of the self
• Influenced by Nietzsche's nihilistic view of language as a play of signifiers without any ultimate referent or ground
• Sees in Nietzsche a precursor to his own deconstructive approach to language and meaning

Heidegger and language

• Engages extensively with Heidegger's philosophy, particularly his later writings on language and poetry
• Draws on Heidegger's notion of language as the "house of Being" and his critique of metaphysical notions of presence
• Shares Heidegger's view of the inherent ambiguity and opacity of language, its resistance to clear, unequivocal meaning
• Influenced by Heidegger's deconstructive readings of philosophical and literary texts

Derrida and deconstruction

• Closely associated with Derrida and the development of deconstruction as a philosophical and literary approach
• Shares Derrida's emphasis on the play of signifiers and the instability of linguistic meaning
• Draws on Derrida's notions of différance, trace, and supplementarity in his own deconstructive readings
• Part of the first generation of scholars to introduce and popularize Derrida's work in the United States

De Man's literary criticism

Romanticism and ideology

• Offers deconstructive readings of Romantic literature, challenging traditional understandings of Romantic subjectivity and imagination
• Argues that Romantic texts are haunted by the specter of ideology, the unacknowledged political and historical conditions of their production
• Sees in Romanticism a tension between the desire for unmediated expression and the inevitable mediation of language
• Reads Romantic irony as a self-deconstructive gesture, a recognition of the limits of poetic language

Rousseau and allegory

• Provides an influential deconstructive reading of Rousseau's essay "On the Origin of Languages"
• Argues that Rousseau's text is structured by a series of allegorical displacements and substitutions
• Sees in Rousseau an allegory of the impossibility of origin, the always-already mediated nature of language and society
• Challenges traditional readings of Rousseau as a champion of authenticity and transparency

Proust and temporality

• Reads Proust's In Search of Lost Time as an allegory of the impossibility of recovering lost time
• Argues that Proust's novel deconstructs the opposition between memory and forgetting, presence and absence
• Sees in Proust a radical rethinking of temporality and subjectivity, a recognition of the fundamentally elusive nature of the self
• Suggests that Proust's text enacts a perpetual deferral of meaning, a resistance to narrative closure

Rilke and poetic language

• Offers a deconstructive reading of Rilke's poetry, focusing on the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus
• Argues that Rilke's poems enact a crisis of poetic language, a confrontation with the limits of representation
• Sees in Rilke a radical questioning of the possibility of poetic expression, a recognition of language's inherent opacity
• Reads Rilke's angels as figures of otherness and alterity, emblems of the irreducible strangeness of language

Reception and legacy

Influence on Yale School

• Key figure in the development of the Yale School of deconstruction, alongside colleagues like J. Hillis Miller and Geoffrey Hartman
• Helped establish Yale as a center of deconstructive literary theory and practice in the 1970s and 80s
• Influenced a generation of scholars and critics through his teaching and mentorship at Yale
• Played a crucial role in disseminating deconstructive approaches in the US academic context

Posthumous controversies

• Revelations of de Man's wartime journalism in 1987 sparked intense debates about his intellectual legacy and personal history
• Critics saw the anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi articles as evidence of a troubling continuity in de Man's thought, a failure to reckon with his past
• Controversy raised questions about the political implications of deconstruction and its alleged relativism or nihilism
• Debates reflected larger tensions in the humanities between poststructuralist theory and historicist or politically engaged criticism

Defenders and critics

• Defenders, including Derrida and many of de Man's former students, argued for separating his later work from his youthful writings
• Saw the wartime articles as a regrettable but ultimately separate episode, not invalidating de Man's subsequent intellectual contributions
• Critics, such as Jon Wiener and David Lehman, read the articles as revealing a deeper problem in de Man's thought, a troubling politics of evasion
• Controversy highlighted the polarization of the academy around issues of theory, politics, and the ethics of interpretation

Lasting impact on literary theory

• Despite the posthumous controversies, de Man remains a major figure in the history of literary theory and criticism
• Work played a seminal role in introducing and legitimizing deconstruction as a mode of reading and analysis
• Concepts like "rhetoric vs. literature," "unreadability," and "blindness and insight" continue to be influential and widely debated
• Part of the larger "linguistic turn" in the humanities, the increased attention to language, discourse, and signification
• Legacy reflects the productive tensions and ongoing questions in literary studies about the nature of texts, meaning, and interpretation