The Yale Critics: Deconstruction in America

A heated debate has been raging in North America in recent years
over the forrn and function of literature. At the center of the fray is a group of critics teaching at Yale University—Harold Bloom, Geoffrey
group of critics teaching at Yale University—Harold Bloom, Geoffrey
Hartman, Paul de Man, and J. Hillis Miller—whose work can be
described in relation to the deconstructive philosophy practiced by
French philosopher Jacques Derrida. For over a decade the Yale
Critics have aroused controversy; most often they are considered as
a group, to be applauded or attacked, rather than as individuals
whose ideas merít critical scrutiny. Here a new generation of scholars
attempts for the first time a serious, broad assessment of the Yale
group. These essays appraise the Yale Critics by exploring their
roots, their individual careers, and the issues they introduce.
Throughout, the contributors aim to provide a balanced view of a
subject that has most often been treated polemically. While useful as
an introduction, The Yale Critics also engages in serious critical
reflection on the uses of the humanities in America today.

"Deconstruction in this country has been especially attractive
to young, intellectually ambitious literary scholars... [T]he
volume of essays edited by Arac, Godzich, and Martin,
which is entirely the work of younger critics, registers...
great admiratión for the Yale Critics as trailblazers and
repeated dissatisfaction with their... failure to pursue the
consequences of the true doctrine."—Robert Alter, The New
Republic

Jona than Arac is associate professor of English at the University of
Illinois-Chicago. Wlad Godzich is director of the comparative
literature program at the University of Minnesota and co-editor of
the series Theory and History of Literature. Wallace Martin is
professor of English at the University of Toledo.