Paul de Man: Deconstruction and the Critique of Aesthetic Ideology

xxii, 218 pp. Paul de Man - literary critic, literary philosopher, 'American deconstructionist' - changed the landscape of criticism through his rigorous theories and writings. But how do we now read his work? Norris's book is the first full-length introduction to de Man, a reading that attempts to offer a much-needed corrective to the pattern of extreme antithetical response - strident, ill-informed opposition of an adulatory mystique - that has so far marked the reception of de Man's writings, from Blindness and Insight to The Resistance to Theory. Norris addresses de Man's relationship to philosophical thinking in the post-Kantian tradition, his concern with 'aesthetic ideology' as a potent force of mystification within and beyond that tradition, and the vexed issue of de Man's politics. Norris brings out the marked shift of allegiance in de Man's thinking, from the thinly veiled conservative implications of the early essays to the engagement with Marx and Foucault on matters of language and politics in the late, posthumous writing. At each stage Norris raises these questions through a detailed close reading of individual texts which will be welcome by those who lack any specialized knowledge of de Man's work.