Material Events: Paul de Man and the Afterlife of Theory

(Paperback)

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Renowned contributors use the late work of this crucial figure to open new speculations on "materiality."

A "material event," in one of Paul de Mans definitions, is a piece of writing that enters history to make something happen. This interpretation hovers over the publication of this volume, a timely reconsideration of de Mans late work in its complex literary, critical, cultural, philosophical, political, and historical dimensions.

A distinguished group of scholars responds to the problematic of "materialism" as posed in Paul de Mans posthumous final book, Aesthetic Ideology. These contributors, at the forefront of critical theory, productive thinking, and writing in the humanities, explore the question of "material events" to illuminate not just de Mans work but their own. Prominent among the authors here is Jacques Derrida, whose extended essay Typewriter Ribbon: Limited Inc (2) returns to a celebrated episode in Rousseaus Confessions that was discussed by de Man in Allegories of Reading.

The importance of de Mans late work is related to a broad range of subjects and categories and-in Derridas provocative reading of de Mans concept of "materiality"-the politico-autobiographical texts of de Man himself. This collection is essential reading for all those interested in the present state of literary and cultural theory.

Contributors: Judith Butler, UC Berkeley; T. J. Clark, UC Berkeley; Jacques Derrida, cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales and UC Irvine; Barbara Johnson, Harvard U; Ernesto Laclau, U of Essex; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Laurence A. Rickels, UC Santa Barbara; and Michael Sprinker.