Open Sesame

'The Critic As Host' was presented by J.H. Miller as a reply to M.H. Abram's allegations in his essay 'Rationality and Human Imagination in Cultural History'  that the Deconstructionist reading is parasitical and if applied, it would make, History an impossibility. In the opening paragraph of 'The Critic as Host', Miller quotes M.H. Abrams : "The 'deconstructionist' reading of a given work 'is plainly and simply parasitical' on 'the obvious or univocal reading'.".  The first part of this quote is not that of Abrams, but he has cited it from Wayne Booth. Miller points out that what has happened here is a citation of a citation. He also poses the question that whether this citation itself can be considered as a Parasite in the body of the text, which is the host. The host would be feeding the parasite and there are also possibilities of the parasite killing the host.  Abrams' allegation that Deconstructionist reading...

This write-up will give you a short introduction to J.H. Miller, the American Literary Critic who has been instrumental in connecting North American Criticism to the continental philosophical thoughts   like post structuralism and deconstruction. J.H. Miller / Joseph Hillis Miller was born on March 5, 1928 in Virginia, United States of America. He graduated in the year 1948, received MA and Ph. D from Harvard University in the year 1949 and 1952 respectively. He started his teaching career at Williams College and after holding various positions at John Hopkins University and Yales University, he joined the faculty of University of California, Irne in the year 1986. In 2002, he retired as Professor Emeritus. Miller served as the President of the Modern Language Association of America in 1986 and has also contributed significantly to various other professional academic institutions and organizations throughout his career.  In the initial phases of his caree...