Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man

David Lehman

ISBN 10: 0671682393 / ISBN 13: 9780671682392

Published by Poseidon Press, 1991

About this Item

First edition, 1st printing. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread, in FINE condition. "David Lehman's SIGNS OF THE TIMES is thorough, clarifying, exciting, provocative, even a little daredevil. It is also important, and is bound to be the book of the year that both Literary Theorists and Common Readers will dine out on. As for its substance: If Henry James had taken critic Paul de Man's life as the 'germ' of a story, he might have written in his Notebook: 'how a man's appalling secret spawns a theory that there can be no secrets.' In the absence of such a Jamesian fiction, David Lehman's brilliant exposition of moral blindness in the academy will leave its lustrous mark."---Cynthia Ozick. "A wonderfully intelligent, witty and highly readable account of the self-construction and self-deconstruction of one of the most remarkable trends in modern intellectual history."---Alison Lurie. Extensive author's Notes, Selected Bibliography & Index. Pristine hardcover w/sharp corners & crisp edges, square binding, some minor uniform yellowing of paper, all quite presentable, w/intact NF dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # RUB1308

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man
• Publisher: Poseidon Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671682393
• ISBN 13: 9780671682392
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Lehman, David, Signs Of The Times: Deconstruction And The Fall Of Paul De Man

Reviews

Poet and critic Lehman adds a new afterword to his acclaimed critique of deconstruction and that movement's late high priest, Yale professor and sometime Nazi apologist Paul de Man.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Deconstruction leaves few people neutral. Lehman examines the current academic uproar over this literary movement and the scandal arising from the revelations that the late de Man, one of its chief exponents, had collaborated with the Nazis, writing anti-Semitic articles during the German occupation of Belgium. He includes a translation of de Man's 1941 essay, "The Jews in Contemporary Literature." Lehman is especially interested in analyzing the often disingenuous defenses of de Man offered by the deconstructive establishment, and the deeper implications of these with regard to the state of intellectual life in the United States. While Lehman finds the implications of deconstruction disturbing, his treatment is lively and thorough.
- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.