Introduction

Anecdotes aren’t very de Manian, but I will begin with one anyway. (De Man focused on texts as objects torn from anything like ‘life’, praxis, humanity, ecology or unity. Texts, like ‘life’ and unlike anecdotes, tend to destroy relations and connectedness, tend to annihilate what have come to be known as ‘aha’ moments. That said, de Man’s textual objects were never sacred and self-enclosed works but possessed a destructive power that could – if read – allow for a radical disturbance of the present).