This anthology represents the diversity, inventiveness, and intellectual energy of J. Hillis Miller, the single most significant North American literary critic of the twentieth century. First published in the 1950s, Miller has continued to make invaluable contributions to our understanding of the practice and theory of literary criticism, the ethics and responsibilities of teaching and reading, and the role of literature in the modern world. He has also led the way for successive generations of scholars and students in demonstrating the necessity of comprehending the relationship between philosophy and literature. Divided into five sections - The Ethics of Reading, Victorian Interests, Twentieth-Century Occasions, Practice and Theory, Pedagogical and Political Commitments - the Reader provides more than twenty extracts from some of Miller's most significant publications including one unpublished article. In addition, there is also a new interview with J. Hillis Miller, as well as a series of specially commissioned critical responses to Miller's work by some of the most important critics in literary and cultural studies today. A critical introduction by the editor, a comprehensive bibliography and a chronology of Miller's professional life and activities complete the book. This, the first reader of Miller's work in English, is an indispensable overview and introduction to one of the most original and challenging critical voices to have emerged since the inception of the teaching of English and American literature in universities in the English-speaking world.Features*Presents a comprehensive survey of J Hillis Miller's work introducing the reader to a highly original critical voice known especially for his work on the ethics of reading, deconstruction, Victorian and Twentieth-Century literature, pedagogy and politics*The readings range from the 1950s to the present day, reflecting all major aspects of cutting edge literary criticism.*Specially commi ; This, the first reader of Miller's work in English, is an indispensable overview and introduction to one of the most original and challenging critical voices to have emerged since the inception of the teaching of English and American literature in universities in the English-speaking world ; Preface; J. Hillis Miller and Julian Wolfreys; Acknowledgements; Introduction: J or, aphorism's other; Julian Wolfreys; I The Ethics of Reading; 1. The Critic as Host; 2. The Ethics of Narration; 3. The Ethics of Reading; 4. Reading Telling: Kant; Responses; Miller's Tale; Derek Attridge; To Read a Picture; Mieke Bal; Miller's Crossing (under erasure); Juliet Flower MacCannell; II Victorian Interests; 5. Emily Brontë; 6. The Creation of the Self in Gerard Manley Hopkins; 7. Hardy; Responses; The Critic as Orpheus; Pamela K. Gilbert; Hillis Among the Victorians; James R. Kincaid; III Twentieth-Century Occasions; 8. Mrs Dalloway: Repetition as the Raising of the Dead; 9. Franz Kafka and the Metaphysics of Alienation; 10. Wallace Stevens' Poetry of Being; Responses; 'Poised in their irreconciliation': Literary Loss and Recovery in J. Hillis; Miller's Twentieth-Century Occasions; Thomas Albrecht; 'When the Gods Dissolve like Clouds:' Modernism, Modernity, and the; Space of Literature; Arkady Plotnitsky; Ghostly Preoccupations; Nicholas Royle; IV Practice and Theory; 11. Line; 12. How to Read Literature; 13. The Problematic of Ending in Narrative; 14. The Function of Literary Theory at the Present Time; 15. What is Iterability?; 16. 'Je t'aime'; 17. A Profession of Faith; Responses; 'How About a Game of Tennis?'; Megan Becker-Leckrone; Response to J. Hillis Miller, 'A Profession of Faith'; Rachel Bowlby; Hillis Miller: Flâneur of the Archive; Tom Cohen; V Pedagogical and Political Commitments; 18. Paul de Man's Wartime Writings; 19. President's Column; 20. The Imperative to Teach; 21. Politicizing Art: What are Cultural Studies?; 22. Literary Study in the Transnational University; Responses; (c)(s)i(gh)ting the ungovernable translation; John P. Leavey, Jr.; J. Hillis Miller: in-print and on-line; Barbara L. Cohen; Why Literature? An interview with J. Hillis Miller; Works Cited; Bibliography of Works by J. Hillis Miller; Chronology; Contributors; Index.