Anti-Semitism

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I write to correct an impression that I must have given to Arnold Zipper in a telephone conversation about Paul de Man's collaborationist writings. I am appalled that Paul de Man (or anyone else) could have held and expressed a view of cultural homogeneity that entailed anti-Semitism, and I am greatly distressed that he was an uncritical participant in a vicious time. The fact that the later de Man manifested no trace of anti-Semitism and fought against facile political totalization does not, for me, excuse his earlier writings. Barbara Johnson   Professor of French and Comparative Literature