L’affaire De Mannby Milton J. Rosenbergn”Colleges and books only copy the language which the held and the workyard made.”n— Ralph Waldo EmersonnSigns of the Times:nDeconstruction andnthe Fall of Paul de Mannhy David LehmannNew York: Poseidon Press;n318 pp., $21.95nThere is mention in the Englishnannals of the 14th century ofnsyphilis as “the malady of France.”nInevitably, blame was bilaterally distributednand the French of the same periodncalled the disease “la maladie d’Angleterre.”nA new malady of France, in thenform of a disease of culture, reachednacross the Channel some twenty yearsnago but could not take hold in England.nInstead it found a breedingnground in the humanities departmentsnof American universities. Deconstructionnhas, since then, become epidemicnin the intellectual world of the UnitednStates, and it persists long after it hasnbeen put aside in France by still freshernforms of conceptual derangement.nRather like the theory of relativity,ndeconstruction has both a “special”nand a “general” form. The specialntheory of deconstruction was intendednas a method for the interpretive readingnof “texts.” Jacques Derrida, thenfounding provocateur of deconstruction,nhas taught a generation of academicnacolytes to consider texts tonmean everything from Sophocles andnFlaubert to rock lyrics and cereal boxninscriptions. All, according to Derrida,nhave no intrinsic meaning and theyndiffer neither in artistic merit nor innmoral worth. These qualities residenmerely in the eye and mind of thenreader, and finally the proper functionnof criticism is not to elucidate, evaluate,nor appreciate, but to deconstruct —nthat is, to destroy. Thereby one destroysnnot only the authority of thenMilton ]. Rosenberg is a professor ofnsocial psychology at the University ofnChicago.nwork in question but also the delusionalnsense that we command our languagen(in fact it “speaks us”) or thatnsuch mistaken standards as reason,ntruth, or beauty have any possiblenclaim upon us.nIn its general form deconstruction,nwhen placed in intellectual history,ncomes to look very much like a reconstructionnof nihilism, that older philosophynwhich regards the concept ofnmeaning as meaningless and the ideanof truth as an utter lie. Thus thenbroader deconstructionists — who nownfill and often dominate the humanitiesndepartments of our universities — raidnfar beyond mere literature as they flailnaway at the graphic arts, at science, atnlaw, and at philosophy itself. And innthese forays, as they pull apart yet othern”texts,” they continue to proclaim thatnobjectivity, reason, and meaningfulnmoral purpose are all and always vainnnnillusions. Well — almost all and almostnalways: for in their voraciousness thenleading deconstructionists have, in recentnyears, attempted to gobble upnMarxism and feminism. The purposenhas not been to deconstruct their textsnbut rather to demonstrate a great newninsight: that the significant literary andnintellectual works of Western civilization,nwhether in literature, law, ornphilosophy and ranging from classicalnantiquity to the middle of this century,nare all in fact merely doing the work ofnrepressive capitalism by keeping women,nworkers, homosexuals, and non-nWesterners entrapped in a sense ofnunworthiness.nAs they have frollicked in their newlynopened neo-Marxist playground,nAmerican deconstructionists have enjoyednthe added delights of attackingnthe traditions of the institutions thatnhouse and pay them. Assaulting then”canon” of significant authors, shiftingnthe work of English departments awaynfrom Shakespeare, Dickens, or Jamesnand toward Spillane, Madonna, and 2nLive Crew, burdening half-literate undergraduatesnwith the opacities ofnDerrida, De Man, and their Americannimitators, they have, in the humanitiesndepartments of our universities, made andesolation and called it “victory.”nWhile scholarly argument about deconstruchonnhas, in recent years, begunnto emerge in the academic journalsnand intellectual reviews, it hasnhardly been reported to the broadnpublic. David Lehman’s new book is anwelcome contribution. In vivid reportagenit brings to the general reader thenbad news from Harvard, Yale, JohnsnHopkins, Duke, Berkeley, and kindrednscholarly enclaves. Lehman, who hasnapparently spent his time as an indenturednacademic in the English departmentnat Ithaca College, has been anclose observer of this scene. His stancenis amusement at the follies of his peers,nbut just behind his puckish personanone senses deeper reserves of disgustnand rage.nJULY 1991/35n