The Textual Sublime: 
Deconstruction and its Differences

-- Hugh J. Silverman and Gary E. Alyesworth, eds.

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The Textual Sublime addresses the question of deconstruction by asking what it is and discussing its alternatives.  To what extent does deconstruction derive from a philosophical stance, and to what extent does it depend upon a set of strategies, moves, and rhetorical practices that result in criticism?  Special attention is given to the formulations offered by Jacques Derrida (in relation to Heidegger's philosophy) and by Paul de Man (in relation to Kant's theory of the Sublime).  

The Textual Sublime is particularly concerned with how a text (philosophical or literary) sets its own limits, borders, and margins.  It examines that aspect of a text that deconstruction shows to be both an element of the text and what surpasses the text, what takes it outside itself (in view of alternatives and alterities) and what ties it to differing philosophical, rhetorical, historical, and critical practices.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Editor's Introduction

 

I.  Deconstruction and Criticism

    Preliminary Remarks

Gary E. Aylesworth

1. The Choice of Deconstruction

Christopher Fynsk

2. Is Deconstruction an Alternative?

Kathryn Kinczewski

3. Does Deconstruction Makes Any Difference?

Michael Fischer

 

II.  Deconstruction and Philosophy

    Preliminary Remarks

4. Ending/Closure:  On Derida's Margining of Heidegger

Eugenio Donato

5. The Possibility of a Literary Deconstruction: A Reply to Eugenio Donato

David Wood

6. Derrida and Heidegger: The Interlacing of Texts

Tina Chanter

 

III.  Philosophy and Criticism

    Preliminary Remarks

7. The Différance Between Derrida and de Man

Irene E. Harvey

8. Phenomenality and Materiality in Kant

Paul de Man

9. On Mere Sight:  A Response to Paul de Man

Rodolphe Gasché

 

IV.  The Rhetoric and Practice of Deconstruction

10. Paul de Man and the Subject of Literary History

Gregory S. Jay

11. Recovering the Figure of J. L. Austin in Paul de Man's Allegories of Reading

Brian C. Caraher

12. The Anexity of American Deconstruction

Howard Felperin

 

V.  Deconstructing Translation

    Preliminary Remarks

13. Around and About Babel

Joseph F. Graham

14. The Différance of Translation

David B. Allison

15. Lations, Cor, Trans, Re, &c.*

John P. Leavey, Jr.

 

VI.  Alternatives to Deconstruction

    Preliminary Remarks

16. Derrida's Epistemology

Anthony Easthope

17. The Critical Difference: Adorno's Aesthetic Alternative

Wilhelm S. Wurzer

18. Poststructuralist Alternatives to Deconstruction

Arnaud Villani

 

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Contributors

 

Editors

 

Index

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