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Guide to the Neil Hertz Papers on Paul de Man
MS.C.019
MS-C019
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Title: Neil Hertz papers on Paul de Man
Collection Number: MS-C019
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Physical Description:
0.2 Linear feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1987-1990
Languages: The collection is in English, French, and Dutch.
Abstract: This collection comprises research notes and correspondence from Neil Hertz' and Tom Kennan's 1988 research trip to Belgium
to gather information for
Responses: On Paul de Man's Wartime Journalism.
creator:
Hertz, Neil
The collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Neil Hertz Papers on Paul de Man. MS-C019. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Gift of Neil Hertz, 2010.
Neil Hertz grew up in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Amherst College in 1953 before spending
a year abroad at the University of Bordeaux as a Fulbright Scholar. In 1954 Hertz enlisted in the army and served for two
years before enrolling at Harvard where he earned his M.A. in English in 1960.
In 1961 Hertz returned to New York to teach English at Cornell University. He left Cornell in 1982 to continue his career
at John Hopkins University as Professor of humanities and English. While at Johns Hopkins, Hertz served as the Director of
the Humanities Center from 1993 to 1999, and was awarded visiting professorships at the University of California, Berkley,
the University of Geneva, and Wellesly College. He is well known for publishing the books,
The End of the Line: Essays on Psychoanalysis and the Sublime and
George Elliot's Pulse as well as numerous other articles and publications.
After the discovery, in 1987, of Paul de Man's wartime journalism, Neil Hertz and two colleagues, Werner Hemacher and Tom
Keenan, published de Man's wartime writing in
Responses: On Paul de Man's Wartime Journalism. Prior to publication, Hertz and Keenan spent a week in Belgium in June 1988 interviewing Paul de Man's family, friends,
and colleagues from the 1930s and 1940s; and contacting scholars of the Occupation.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection comprises research notes and correspondence from Neil Hertz' and Tom Kennan's 1988 research trip to Belgium
to gather information for
Responses: On Paul de Man's Wartime Journalism. Of particular interest are photocopies of texts that were located by Hertz' Belgium contacts including
Galerie des Traitres, denouncing wartime writers for
Le Soir;
Le Chant Dans les Ruinesand
LeMassacre des Innocents, poems reviewed by deMan in Le Soir; and
Exercise du Silence, the introductory essay to the fourth issue of Messages, which de Man helped get published in Brussels after the journal
was banned in Paris. Additionally, the collection includes correspondence from Georges Poulet and Jan de Man, son of Henrik
de Man.
This collection is arranged in alphabetical order.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
De Man, Paul -- Archives
Antisemitism
Critical theory.
Criticism -- Archives.
Literary critics.
Literature--History and criticism.
Theorists.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Belgium -- Periodicals
World War, 1939-1945 -- Journalism
World War, 1939-1945 -- Literature and the war -- History and criticism