Miller's approach is both a development of narratology in the wide sense of theoretical work on narrative and a critique of some of the simplistic assumptions of early structuralist theories. Along with other critics of the 'deconstructive school' like Paul de Man, Miller contends that the formalist notion of a science of literature is a contradiction in terms because, as Paul de Man argues in 'The Resistance to Theory' (1982), 'the grammatical decoding of a text leaves a residue of indetermination that has to be, but cannot be, resolved by a grammatical means, however extensively conceived.' A great deal of earlier narratological work would be for de Man or Miller an attempt at a 'grammatical decoding' of texts which disregards the hermeneutic function of reading, a mechanical

approach which cannot claim to reach the 'determining figural dimensions' of a text.