The alienation a focus on linguistics presents for texts that are rooted in aesthetic applications of language is one of de Man’s primary arguments for why the post-1960s theories are more radical and garnered more resistance. These linguistic considerations include grammar, semantics, context, readability, and tropological phrases. It is through his exploration of language that de Man reaches the conclusion that “the resistance to theory is in fact a resistance to reading” (de Man 343). In this context, de Man more specifically means reading the text in terms of theory and for the scientific forms of linguistics, which in turn demonstrates the resistance of theory to application. De Man demonstrates this difficulty in an example of Keats’ poem “The Fall of
The alienation a focus on linguistics presents for texts that are rooted in aesthetic applications of language is one of de Man’s primary arguments for why the post-1960s theories are more radical and garnered more resistance. These linguistic considerations include grammar, semantics, context, readability, and tropological phrases. It is through his exploration of language that de Man reaches the conclusion that “the resistance to theory is in fact a resistance to reading” (de Man 343). In this context, de Man more specifically means reading the text in terms of theory and for the scientific forms of linguistics, which in turn demonstrates the resistance of theory to application. De Man demonstrates this difficulty in an example of Keats’ poem “The Fall of