Abstract

Departing from two influential essays by Paul de Man, the present paper attempts to discuss the matter of tropes as inhabiting the limit between rhetoric and grammar by referring to a special case within the formalized framework of figures of speech – the complex figurative structure of allegory. As an extended metaphor, allegory functions as double fold literary device conveying persuasion as well as meaning and for this reason it can be a well-suited starting point for investigating how, according to Paul de Man’s self resistant theories, the rhetoric of thought and the rhetoric of figures are at odds with each other in every text.