Explores reasons why the theoretical enterprise is blind to, or "resists," the radical nature of reading, in six essays that offer a new level of critical and cultural understanding in reference to the works of Jauss, Riffaterre, Benjamin, and Bakhtin.

In a brilliant collection of essays, de Man explores his views, that, the resistance to theory is inherent in the theoretical enterprise itself, and the real debate is with its own methodological assumptions and possibilities.

"Indispensable. . . . There is resistance to 'theory' and also confusion about its status with reference to both philosophy and criticism." -Frank Kermode, Columbia University