Bibliography - Jacques Derrida

Books

The Death Penalty

– The Death Penalty, Volume I, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

In this newest installment in Chicago’s series of Jacques Derrida’s seminars, the renowned philosopher attempts one of his most ambitious goals: the first truly philosophical argument against the death penalty. While much has been written against the… More

The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume II

– The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume II, trans. Geoffrey Bennington (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).

Following on from The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I, this book extends Jacques Derrida’s exploration of the connections between animality and sovereignty. In this second year of the seminar, originally presented in 2002–2003 as the last course he… More

The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I

– The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I, trans. Geoffrey Bennington (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

When he died in 2004, Jacques Derrida left behind a vast legacy of unpublished material, much of it in the form of written lectures. With The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I, the University of Chicago Press inaugurates an ambitious series, edited by… More

Learning to Live Finally

– Learning to Live Finally, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas, (Hoboken, NJ: Melville House Publishing, 2007).

…[The] Derrida found in this book is open and engaging, reflecting on a long career challenging important tenets of European philosophy from Plato to Marx. The contemporary meaning of Derrida’s work is also examined, including a discussion of his many… More

The Gift of Death and Literature in Secret

– The Gift of Death and Literature in Secret, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida’s most sustained consideration of religion, explores questions first introduced in his book Given Time about the limits of the rational and responsible that one reaches in granting or accepting death, whether by sacrifice,… More

Rogues: Two Essays on Reason

– Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005).

Rogues, published in France under the title Voyous, comprises two major lectures that Derrida delivered in 2002 investigating the foundations of the sovereignty of the nation-state. The term “État voyou” is the French equivalent of “rogue… More

Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues With Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida

– Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues With Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, ed. Giovanna Borradori (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)

The idea for Philosophy in a Time of Terror was born hours after the attacks on 9/11 and was realized just weeks later when Giovanna Borradori sat down with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida in New York City, in separate interviews, to evaluate the… More

Acts of Religion

– Acts of Religion, ed. Gil Anidjar (London: Routledge, 2002).

This collection of Derrida’s essays is entitled Acts of Religion, not “thoughts,” “essays,” or “writings” on religion. It is an appropriate title. These works, selected from Derrida’s oeuvre from 1980 to 2001 by Gil Anidjar of Columbia… More

Who’s Afraid of Philosophy?: Right to Philosophy I

– Who’s Afraid of Philosophy?: Right to Philosophy I trans. Jan Plug (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002).

This volume reflects Jacques Derrida’s engagement in the late 1970s with French political debates on the teaching of philosophy and the reform of the French university system… While addressing specific contemporary political issues on occasion, thus… More

Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression

– Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. trans. Eric Prenowitz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology — fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between… More

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Essays

The Villanova Roundtable: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida

– “The Villanova Roundtable: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida,” in Deconstruction in a Nutshell ed. John D. Caputo (New York: Fordham University Press, 1997): pp. 4-28.

Excerpt: “Now, nevertheless, the way that I try to read Plato, Aristotle and others is not a way of, let’s say, commending or repeating or conserving this heritage. It is an analysis which tries to find out how their thinking works or doesn’t… More

Nietzsche and the Machine

– “Nietzsche and the Machine,” Journal of Nietzsche Studies 7 (1994): pp. 7-66.

An Interview with Jacques Derrida by Richard Beardsworth.

The Time is Out of Joint

– “The Time is Out of Joint,” in Deconstruction is/in America ed. A. Haverkamp (New York, New York University Press, 1994): pp. 14-38.

Excerpt: ” ‘The time is out of joint.’ The formula speaks of time, it also says the time, but it refers singularly to this time, to an ‘in these times, the time of these times, the time of this world’ which was for Hamlet an… More

Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority

– “Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority” in trans. Mary Quaintance, Cardozo Law Review 11 (1989-1990): pp. 920-1045.

By questioning law’s rather “violent,” “polemical,” “inquisitorial” character [Force of Law] intrusively asks the questions of whether deconstruction permits or denies any just action, any discourse about justice;… More

How to Avoid Speaking: Denials

– “How to Avoid Speaking: Denials,” in Derrida and Negative Theology. eds. Harold Coward and Toby Foshay (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989): pp. 73-136.

Excerpt: “Under the very loose heading of ‘negative theology,’ as you know, one often designates a certain form of language, with its mise en scène, its rhetorical, grammatical, and logical modes, its demonstrative procedures… Is there one negative… More

Like the Sound of the Sea Deep Within a Shell: Paul de Man’s War

– “Like the Sound of the Sea Deep Within a Shell: Paul de Man’s War,” Critical Inquiry 14 (Spring 1988): pp. 590-652.

Excerpt: “The title names a war. Which war? Do not think only of the war that broke out several months ago around some articles signed by a certain Paul de Man, in Belgium between 1940 and 1942. Later you will understand why it is important to situate… More

Declarations of Independence

– “Declarations of Independence,” New Political Science 7 (Summer 1986): pp. 7-15.

Excerpt: “It is better you know right away: I am not going to keep my promise. I beg your pardon, but it will be impossible for me to speak to you this afternoon, even in an indirect style, about what I was engaged to deal with. Very sincerely, I would… More

In memoriam: for Paul de Man

– “In memoriam: for Paul de Man,” Yale French Studies 69 (1985).

A tribute to one of the fathers of deconstruction.

Racism’s Last Word

– “Racism’s Last Word,” Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985): pp. 290-299.

Excerpt: “A memory in advance: that, perhaps, is the time given for this exhibition. At once urgent and untimely, it exposes itself and takes a chance with time, it wagers and affirms beyond the wager. Without counting on any present moment, it offers… More

Letter to a Japanese Friend

– “Letter to a Japanese Friend,” in Derrida and Difference eds. Robert Bernasconi and David Wood, (Warwick: Parousia Press, 1985): pp. 71-82.

Excerpt: “Dear Professor Izutsu, At our last meeting I promised you some schematic and preliminary reflections on the word ‘deconstruction.’ What we discussed were prolegomena to a possible translation of this word into Japanese, one which… More

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Jacques Derrida