Acknowledgments vii
Editors' Preface xi
Personhood and Other Objects: The Figural Dispute with Philosophy / Judith Butler xvii
Barbara Johnson by Barbara Johnson xxvii
Part I. Reading Theory as Literature, Literature as Theory
1. The Critical Difference: BartheS/BalZac 3
2. Translator's Introduction to
Dissemination (abridged) 14
3. Poetry and Syntax: What the Gypsy Knew 26
4. A Hound, a Bay Horse, and a Turtle Dove: Obscurity in
Walden 36
5. Strange Fits: Poe and Wordsworth on the Nature of Poetic Language 44
6. The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida 57
Part II. Race, Sexuality, Gender
7. Euphemism, Understatement, and the Passive Voice: A Geneaology of Afro-American Poetry 101
8. Metaphor, Metonymy, and Voice in
Their Eyes Were Watching God 108
9. Moses and Intertextuality: Sigmund Freud, Zora Neale Hurston, and the Bible 126
10. Lesbian Spectacles: Reading
Sula,
, Thelma and Louse, and The Accused 141
11. Bringing Out D. A. Miller 147
12. Correctional Facilities 155
13. My Monster/My Self 179
Part III. Language, Personhood, Ethics
14. Introduction to
Freedom and Interpretation (abridged) 193
15. Muteness Envy 200
16. Apostrophe, Animation, and Abortion 217
17. Anthropomorphism in Lyric and Law 235
18. Using People: Kant with Winnicott 262
19. Ego Sum Game 275
20. Melville's Fist: The Execution of
Billy Budd 289
Part IV. Pedagogy and Translation
21. Nothing Fails Like Success 327
22. Bad Writing 334
23. Teaching Deconstructively 347
24. Poison or Remedy? Paul de Man as Pharmakon 357
25. Taking Fidelity Philosophically 371
26. The Task of the Translator 377
27. Teaching Ignorance:
L'Ecole des femmes 401
Afterword. Barbara's Signature / Shoshana Felman 421
Bibliography 433
Index 437