The article discusses Paul de Man's treatment of the ethicity of allegory in the Allegories of Reading, particularly a difficult passage in the chapter "Allegory" (Julie), where de Man describes ethics or ethicity as "a discursive mode among others" and defines it as "the structural interference of two distinct value systems." Despite the acknowledged opacity of the passage, many scholars quoted it, interpreted it and incorporated it in their own elaborations on ethics and literature. The article claims that the established interpretations of the passage are erroneous. In addition, it seeks to demonstrate that the close reading of de Man's text discloses its inconsistency. The conclusion is that de Man's famous, but enigmatic formulations cannot serve as a ground for a fruitful ethical literary criticism. Key words Paul de Man; allegory; ethical literary criticism; Hillis Miller