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Paul De Man

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Critic

The Resume

    (December 6, 1919-December 21, 1983)
    Resided in New York and Connecticut
    Wrote 'Les exégèses de Hölderlin par Martin Heidegger (1955),' 'Blindness and Insight (1971),' 'Allegories of Reading (1979),' 'The Rhetoric of Romanticism (published posthumously, 1984),' 'The Resistance to Theory (published posthumously, 1986)' and 'Aesthetic Ideology (published posthumously, 1988)'
    Friend and protégé of Jacques Derrida

Why he might be annoying:

    He liked to make other critics look stupid.
    He had to flee Europe because he was wanted for fraud.
    He abandoned a wife and three children to come to the United States.
    He married one of his students without obtaining a divorce.
    He lied about who his father was.
    He was once accused of being a Nazi, but denied it.
    After he died, it was revealed that he collaborated with the Nazis in occupied Belgium.
    He wrote nearly 300 essays saying that Jews and other 'degenerate' races couldn't be good writers or artists.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was one of the most influential academics of the 1970's.
    Many colleagues and students tried to defend him of the Nazi allegations.
    He was fluent in five languages (including German, of course).
    He died of cancer in his early sixties.
    Despite his personal reputation being utterly destroyed, his theories are still taught today.

Credit: Wieland Kalligaro


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 96 Votes: 53.12% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 32 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 29 Votes: 48.28% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 102 Votes: 59.80% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 62 Votes: 77.42% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 48 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 23 Votes: 56.52% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 45 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 59 Votes: 76.27% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 88 Votes: 76.14% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 140 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 361 Votes: 69.81% Annoying