Theory at Yale: The Strange Case of Deconstruction in America

Redfield (The Rhetoric of Terror) deftly weaves case studies, intellectual histories, and analyses into this educational and, at times, revelatory account of the rise of European literary deconstruction theory in the U.S. Focusing on the Yale Critics— J. Hillis Miller, Geoffrey Hartman, Harold Bloom, and Paul de Man—and the pervasive influence of Jacques Derrida, Redfield describes the “mediatization” of literary theory, beginning in the 1970s and ’80s, that continues to inform the humanities to this day. He provides a detailed assessment of the relationships among aesthetic discourse, literary theory, and romanticism before delving into the different meanings attached to the word theory. The most compelling chapter is the fifth, which introduces de Man as the “charismatic master” of deconstruction. Eschewing “straightforward accounts” of any of the critics presented in favor of “slanted approaches,” Redfield’s arguments are (sometimes appropriately) meandering, but they culminate in a revelatory and direct final chapter. In this section, the inclusion of “Derrida Queries de Man” and “Constructing the Grand Canyon,” two 1990 paintings by Mark Tansey, allows Redfield to further his paradoxical understanding of theory as de Manian “resistance to theory” and to highlight deconstruction’s cultural significance outside the academy.[em] (Nov.) [/em]