Description: One of the most knowledgeable and provocative explicators of Paul de Man's writings, Rodolphe Gasché, a philosopher by training, demonstrates, for the first time, the systematic coherence of the critic's work, insisting that de Man continues to merit close attention despite his notoriously difficult and obscure style.
Brief description: Rodolphe Gasché is Eugenio Donato Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Review Quotes: The Wild Card of Reading is a brilliant book of compelling importance to literary studies. De Man is still one of the major figures in American literary criticism/theory, even if that 'majority' sometimes assumes the form of outright rejection. The major accomplishment of Gasché's book is to have shown for the first time the systematic coherence of de Man's work. This is done in total avoidance of the twin modes of reception that have dominated discussion of de Man's work, namely sectarian partisanship on the one hand and uninformed dismissal on the other. Gasché identifies a stratum of critical engagement with texts in de Man's writing that constitutes what one might call the sphere of his originality and that is irreducible to a set of theoretical tenets. The book elevates discussion of de Man's work to a new level of conceptual richness and precision. It is also a tour de force of lucid exposition. But what I find most appealing about the book is, if I may say so, its intellectual honesty.--David Wellbery, William Kurrelmeyer Professor of German, Johns Hopkins University