Paul de Man: the Rousseau Papers

To some Paul de Man was the most important literary critic of his generation. As the initiator of a form of rhetorical reading his legacy in literary and cultural studies can still be felt today. To others, he is a scandalous figure, due to the posthumous exposure of his involvement with the collaborationist press in Second World War Belgium. This project seeks to recover an unpublished 200 page handwritten manuscript by de Man from the Critical Theory Archive at the University of California (Irvine). Written in the late 1970s when de Man was at the height of his intellectual powers and institutional influence the manuscript promises to be a major contribution from one of the world's great literary critics. This research aims to prepare for publication a critical edition of the manuscript. It will also relate this manuscript to a range of other unpublished papers on Rousseau by de Man in the Critical Theory Archive and to investigate them critically as a contribution to the de Man ouevre and the wider fields of literary theory and Romanticism studies.