Who among the following is NOT a Yale critic?

The correct option is Roland Barthes.

To understand why Roland Barthes is the correct choice, let us examine the concept of the Yale School of literary criticism and the scholars associated with it:
The Yale School was a highly influential group of literary critics and theorists associated with Yale University during the late 1970s and 1980s. They were primarily known for championing and applying the philosophy of deconstruction (originally pioneered by Jacques Derrida) to literary texts.

The core members of this group, often referred to as the Yale Critics, include:
1. Paul de Man: A key figure and co-founder of the deconstructive movement at Yale.
2. J. Hillis Miller: A prominent American literary critic who transitioned from phenomenology to deconstruction and taught at Yale.
3. Geoffrey Hartman: A renowned scholar of Romantic poetry who was a major contributor to the Yale School.
4. Harold Bloom: Although he had a distinct personal theory of literary influence (the anxiety of influence), he was closely grouped with them and contributed to their collaborative anthology, Deconstruction and Criticism.

In contrast, Roland Barthes was a famous French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. While his seminal essays (such as "The Death of the Author") laid the groundwork for post-structuralism and post-structuralist thought, Barthes operated within the French intellectual tradition (associated with institutions like the Collège de France) and was never a member of the Yale School of critics.