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The Frontiers of Theory

Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man – Letters, 1968–1983

Edited by Patricia de Man, Martin McQuillan, Kevin Newmark and Marc Redfield

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Published 31 January 2027

About this book

Presents the complete surviving correspondence between two of the most influential figures in twentieth-century literary theory, Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man

  • Reveals the intellectual and personal relationship between two central figures of deconstruction
  •   Based on materials from IMEC (Caen), Brown University, and UC Irvine archives
  • Includes substantial critical introduction and detailed editorial annotations
  • Features newly translated letters, many published here for the first time

Spanning sixteen years, these letters chart a profound intellectual friendship at the heart of deconstruction, traversing philosophy, literature and the institutional life of theory from Yale to Paris. The exchange offers new insights into the private and professional worlds of Derrida and de Man as they navigate their writing, teaching and the intellectual crises of their era. Previously unseen material redefines our understanding of the Derrida-de Man relationship and illuminates the development of late-twentieth-century critical theory at its pivotal moment. Transcribed and translated with scholarly apparatus and a substantial contextual introduction, this volume is essential for understanding the evolution of modern thought and the ethics of reading and friendship.

Reviews

The letters of Derrida and de Man are undramatic yet compelling, imaginatively intriguing and strangely moving. They provide a fresh and intimate perspective on an important period of postwar intellectual history. For anyone interested in the history of deconstruction or poststructuralism, or the work of Derrida and de Man, this volume will be indispensable.
Table of contents

List of Figures
Series Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Translation
Notes on Editors and Translators

Introduction: 'Ineffaceable Friendship'
Correspondence
Appendix
Notes on Letters

Index

About the contributors

Paul de Man

Paul de Man (1919-83) was the Sterling Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Yale University. He is the author of some of the most important works of literary theory and deconstruction including Blindness and Insight, Allegories of Reading, The Rhetoric of Romanticism, and Aesthetic Ideology.

Patricia de Man

Patricia de Man is daughter of Paul and Patricia de Man. She undertook graduate work at Yale University and was a rare book librarian at the Yale Centre for British Art. She has taught at Yale and Bennington College and is now an independent scholar and translator.

Martin McQuillan

Martin McQuillan is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, journalist and writer. He is the editor of several texts by Paul de Man, including The Post-Romantic Predicament and The Paul de Man Notebooks. He teaches in the Sound/Image Cinema Lab at Falmouth University.

Kevin Newmark

Kevin Newmark teaches literature and literary theory at Boston College. Between 1978 and 1984, he was a graduate student at Yale University, where he studied with both Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida.

Marc Redfield

Marc Redfield is Florence Pirce Grant University Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Professor of German at Brown University. His most recent book is Shibboleth: Judges, Derrida, Celan (2021). He is completing a book titled Homeless Hospitality: Kant, Kafka, Lispector.

Bruno Penteado

Bruno Penteado is Assistant Professor of French at Texas Tech University. He has published on the intersections of continental philosophy and modern French literature

Sonja Stojanovic

Sonja Stojanovic is Associate Professor of French at Texas Tech University, USA. She is the author of Mind the Ghost: Thinking Memory and the Untimely through Contemporary Fiction in French (2023).

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