More than twenty years after his death, Paul de Man remains a haunting presence in the American academy. His name is linked not just with Gdeconstruction,G but with a Gdeconstruction in AmericaG that continues to disturb the institution it inhabits. The academy seems driven to characterize Gde Manian deconstruction,G again and again, as dead. Such acts of exorcism testify that de ManGs ghost has never been laid to rest, and for good reason: a dispassionate survey of recent trends in critical theory and practice reveals that de ManGs influence is considerable and ongoing. These original essays analyze and evaluate aspects of de ManGs powerful legacy. Contributions focus on: his great theme of GreadingG; his complex notions of Ghistory,G Gmateriality,G and Gaesthetic ideologyG; and his institutional role as a teacher and, more generally, as a charismatic figure associated with the fortunes of Gtheory.G The collection concludes with two appendixes concerning de ManGs teaching: a list of the courses he taught at Yale, and the undergraduate course proposal for GLiterature Z.G. Intro -- Title Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Legacies of Paul de Man / Marc Redfield -- Part I: Reading -- Double-Take: Reading de Man and Derrida Writing on Tropes / Cynthia Chase -- Reading, Begging, Paul de Man / Jan Mieszkowski -- Part II: Reading History -- History against Historicism, Formal Matters, and the Event of the Text: de Man with Benjamin / Ian Balfour -- Discontinuous Shifts: History Reading History / Andrzej Warminski -- Part III: Institutions of Pedagogy -- ''At the Far End of This Ongoing Enterprise...'' / Sara Guyer -- Professing Literature: John Guillory's Misreading of Paul de Man / Marc Redfield -- Part IV: Theory, Materiality, and the Aesthetic -- Thinking Singularity with Immanuel Kant and Paul de Man: Aesthetics, Epistemology, History, and Politics / Arkady Plotnitsky -- Seeing Is Reading / Rei Terada -- Appendix 1: Courses Taught by Paul de Man during the Yale Era / Marc Redfield -- Appendix 2: Paul de Man, ''Course Proposal: Literature Z'' -- Contributors -- Notes -- Index.
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