保罗·德·曼的误读理论或修辞学版本的解构主义

Paul de Man's Theory of Reading and Rhetoric

德.曼所说的“阅读”也就是惯常所说的“阐释”。他认为,任何阅读都是误读,因为阅读要用语言,而语言总是一种修辞,即说法,从而不可能有惟一的解读,而是有各种不同读法。由此,德.曼提出了他的最有代表性的观点,即任何阅读所获得的洞见同时也是盲点,因为它总是从某种预设出发,从而必然忽略了其它视点。德.曼版本的解构主义最早在美国打开了新的批评空间,在某种意义上也奠定了美国20世纪90年代以降文学批评与文化批判混化的基础。

Paul de Man's understanding of the term 'reading' radically expands the meaning of the term and actually relates it with 'interpretation'. According to de Man, all readings are misreadings because reading involves the use of language and language is always rhetorical. That means that any kind of reading or interpretation is only a perspective among many other possible perspectives. There is not such a thing as the single truth. As such, any kind of reading has two sides, that is , its insight and blindness go hand in hand. The reason for this is that , limited by its own perspective, it is always blind to other perspectives. de Man's theory analyses various mistakes because of this blindness in reading. Through his analysis, he opened new horizons for American criticism.