The Resistance to Theory
Paul de Man
Study materials for research scholars of Indian Universities.
Dr. S. Sreekumar
Paul de Man
(December 6, 1919 – December 21, 1983) was one of the most prominent literary
critics in the United States who succeeded in bringing German and French
philosophical approaches into Anglo-American literary studies and critical
theory. De Man’s companionship with Jacques Derrida
proved very influential as both took up the epistemological difficulties
inherent in any textual, literary, or critical activity. This approach aroused
considerable opposition, which de Man attributed to "resistance"
inherent in the difficult enterprise of literary interpretation itself.
