Paul de Man

Paul de Man (December 6, 1919 – December 21, 1983) was a Belgian-born literary critic. Quotes Metaphors are much more tenacious than facts. Allegories of Reading (1979), "Semiology and Rhetoric" Blindness and Insight (1971; rev. 1983) Oxford University Press Prior to any generalization about literature, literary texts have to be read, and the possibility of reading can never be taken for granted. It is an act of understanding that can never be observed, nor in any way prescribed or verified.''' "The Rhetoric of Blindness", p. 107 Fashion is like the ashes left behind by the uniquely shaped flames of the fire, the trace alone revealing that a fire actually took place. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 147 Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 148 The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature or specificity. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 152 The writer's language is to some degree the product of his own action; he is both the historian and the agent of his own language. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 152 The critical method which denies literary modernity would appear – and even, in certain respects, would be – the most modern of critical movements. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 164 The bases for historical knowledge are not empirical facts but written texts, even if these texts masquerade in the guise of wars or revolutions. "Literary History and Literary Modernity", p. 165 Curiously enough, it seems to be only in describing a mode of language which does not mean what it says that one can actually say what one means. "The Rhetoric of Temporality", p. 211 External links Category:People from Antwerp Category:Philosophers Category:Literary critics Category:1983 deaths