Tag - Jacques Derrida

Books

Speech and Phenomena

– Speech and Phenomena, and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs, trans. David B. Allison (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1973).

In Speech and Phenomena, Jacques Derrida situates the philosophy of language in relation to logic and rhetoric, which have often been seen as irreconcilable criteria for the use and… More

Of Grammatology

– Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Baltimore, MD and London, UK: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976).

Jacques Derrida’s revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and… More

Writing and Difference

– Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).

First published in 1967, Writing and Difference, a collection of Jacques Derrida’s essays written between 1959 and 1966, has become a landmark of contemporary French thought. In it we… More

Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles/Eperons: Les styles de Nietsche

– Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles/Eperons: Les styles de Nietzsche, trans. Barbara Harlow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).

Nietzsche has recently enjoyed much scrutiny from the nouveaux critiques. Jacques Derrida, the leader of that movement, here combines in his strikingly original and incisive fashion… More

Dissemination

– Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).

“The English version of Dissemination [is] an able translation by Barbara Johnson . . . . Derrida’s central contention is that language is haunted by dispersal, absence, loss,… More

Positions

– Positions, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).

Positions is a collection of three interviews with Jacques Derrida that illuminate and make more accessible the complex concepts and terms treated extensively in such works as Writing and… More

Margins of Philosophy

– Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985).

“In this densely imbricated volume Derrida pursues his devoted, relentless dismantling of the philosophical tradition, the tradition of Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl,… More

Glas

– Glas, trans. John P. Leavey Jr. and Richard Rand (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986).

Glas extensively reworks the problems of reading and writing in philosophy and literature; questions the possibility of linear reading and its consequent notions of theme, author,… More

The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond

– The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

“With The Post Card, as with Glas, Derrida appears more as writer than as philosopher. Or we could say that here, in what is in part a mock epistolary novel (the long section is… More

Limited Inc.

– Limited Inc., trans. Jeffrey Mehlman and Samuel Weber (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988).

The book’s two essays, “Limited Inc.” and “Signature Event Context” constitute key statements of the Derridean theory of deconstruction. They are perhaps the… More

Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question

– Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question, trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Rachel Bowlby (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

“Derrida’s ruminations should intrigue anyone interested in Post-Structuralism… This study of Heidegger is a fine example of how Derrida can make readers of philosophical… More

The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe

– The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe, trans. Pascale-Ann Brault and Michael B. Naas (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1991).

Prompted by the unification of Europe in 1992 and by recent events in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Jacques Derrida begins this compelling essay on contemporary world politics… More

Jacques Derrida (with Geoffrey Bennington)

– (with Geoffrey Bennington) Jacques Derrida trans. Geoffrey Bennington (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Geoffrey Bennington sets out here to write a systematic account of the thought of Jacques Derrida. Responding to Bennington’s text at every turn are Derrida’s own excerpts from… More

Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, & the New International

– Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, & the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf (London: Routledge, 1994).

In 1993, a conference was organized around the question, ‘Whither Marxism?’, and Derrida was invited to open the proceedings. His plenary address, ‘Specters of Marx’,… More

On the Name

– On the Name, trans. David Wood (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995).

“The name: What does one call thus? What does one understand under the name of name? And what occurs when one gives a name? What does one give then? One does not offer a thing, one… More

Points: Interviews 1974-1994

– Points: Interviews 1974-1994 ed. Elisabeth Weber (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995).

This volume collects twenty-three interviews given over the course of the last two decades by Jacques Derrida. It illustrates the extraordinary breadth of his concerns, touching upon such… More

Politics of Friendship

– Politics of Friendship trans. George Collins (London: Verso, 1997).

“O, my friends, there is no friend.” The most influential of contemporary philosophers explores the idea of friendship and its political consequences, past and future… The future of… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… More

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… More

Essays

The Ends of Man

– “The Ends of Man,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 30.1 (1969): pp. 31-57.

Excerpt: “Every philosophical colloquium has a political significance. And not only due to that which has always linked the essence of the philosophical to the essence of the political.… More

The White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy

– “The White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy,” New Literary History 6.1 (1974): pp. 5-74.

Excerpt: “Metaphor in the text of philosophy. We might be confident of understanding every word of this phrase; we might hasten to make out a figure (or to write it in) in the volume… More

Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy

– “Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy,” Oxford Literary Review 6.2 (1984): pp. 3-37.

Excerpt: “I shall speak then of/in an apocalytic tone in philosophy.”

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… More

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… 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.

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… 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… 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… 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… More

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… 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 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… More

Commentary

The Tain of the Mirror: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflection

– Rodolphe Gasche, The Tain of the Mirror: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflection (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986)

Deconstruction is no game of mirrors, revealing the text as a play of surface against surface. Its more radical philosophical effort is to get behind the mirror and question the very nature… More

Deconstruction and Philosophy: The Texts of Jacques Derrida

– John Sallis (ed), Deconstruction and Philosophy: The Texts of Jacques Derrida (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

This volume represents the first sustained effort to relate Derrida’s work to the Western philosophical tradition from Plato to Heidegger. Bringing together twelve essays by twelve… More

On the Margins of Politics

– Thomas McCarthy, “On the Margins of Politics,” The Journal of Philosophy 85:11 (1988): 645- 8.

Excerpt: “The general question raised by Jacques Derrida’s subtle variations on Levinasian and Heideggerian themes is how best to be postmetaphysical in thinking about ethics, law,… More

Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida

– Allan Megill, Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1989).

[In Prophets of Extremity, Megill] examines the philosophical works of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida, and analyzes the connections between their viewpoints.

“Platonic Reconstruction” by Stanley Rosen

– Stanley Rosen, “Platonic Reconstruction,” in Hermeneutics as Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989): pp. 50-86.

[In] Hermeneutics as Politics, perhaps the most important critique of post-modern thought ever written… Rosen illuminates the underpinnings of post-modernist thought, providing valuable… More

From Ironist Theory to Private Allusions: Derrida

– Richard Rorty, “From Ironist Theory to Private Allusions: Derrida,” in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989): pp. 122-140.

Excerpt: Derrida stands to Heidegger as Heidegger to Nietzsche. Each is the most intelligent reader, and most devastating critic, of his respective predecessor. That predecessor is the… More

With the Compliments of the Author: Reflections on Austin and Derrida

– Stanley Fish, “With the Compliments of the Author: Reflections on Austin and Derrida” in Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory (Durham: Duke University Press, 1989): pp. 37-67.

Excerpt: “In the summer of 1977, as I was preparing to teach Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology to a class at the School of Criticism and Theory in Irvine, a card floated out of the… More

Declarations of independence: Arendt and Derrida on the problem of founding a republic

– Bonnie Honig, "Declarations of independence: Arendt and Derrida on the problem of founding a republic,” The American Political Science Review 85:1 (1991): pp. 97–113.

Abstract: Beginning with Hannah Arendt’s depiction of the American Revolution and founding, I critically examine Arendt’s reading of the Declaration of Independence, comparing… More

The Politics of Derridean Deconstruction by Catherine Zuckert

– Catherine Zuckert, “The Politics of Derridean Deconstruction” Polity 23.3 (Sprint 1991): 335-356.

The term “deconstruction,” according to one of its champions, Jacques Derrida, is more than merely a method for interpreting texts; it is a mode of political action as well,… More

Derrida and Negative Theology

– Harold G. Coward and Tobey Foshay (eds), Derrida and Negative Theology (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).

This book explores the thought of Jacques Derrida as it relates to the tradition of apophatic thought — negative theology and philosophy — in both Western and Eastern… More

Serious Play: The Ethical-Political Horizon of Derrida

– Richard Bernstein (1992) ‘Serious Play: The Ethical-Political Horizon of Derrida,’ in Richard Bernstein (ed.) The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): pp.172-98.

Excerpt: “Jacques Derrida is perhaps the most controversial writer of our time. There are those who think that he is a clever intellectual fraud, a ‘prophet’ of nihilism,… More

God Without Being

– Jean-Luc Marion, God Without Being, trans. Thomas A. Carlson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

Jean-Luc Marion is one of the world’s foremost philosophers of religion as well as one of the leading Catholic thinkers of modern times. In God Without Being, Marion challenges a… More

Postmodern Platos

– Catherine Zuckert, Postmodern Platos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996): Chapters 7 & 8.

Catherine Zuckert examines the work of five key philosophical figures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the lens of their own decidedly postmodern readings of Plato. She… More

Richard Beardsworth, Derrida & the Political

– Richard Beardsworth, Derrida & the Political (New York: Routledge, 1996).

Jacques Derrida, one of the most influential, controversial and complex thinkers of our time, has come to be at the center of many political debates. This is the first book to consider the… More

Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida

– John D. Caputo (ed), Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (New York: Fordham University Press, 1997)

Responding to questions put to him at a Roundtable held at Villanova University in 1994, Jacques Derrida leads the reader through an illuminating discussion of the central themes of… More

The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida

– John D. Caputo, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).

“Caputo’s book is riveting. . . . A singular achievement of stylistic brio and impeccable scholarship, it breaks new ground in making a powerful case for treating Derrida as homo… More

The Ethics of Deconstruction

– Simon Critchley, The Ethics of Deconstruction (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1999).

The Ethics of Deconstruction, Simon Critchley’s first book, was originally published to great acclaim in 1992. It was the first book to argue for the ethical turn in Derrida’s… More

Postmodernism, Derrida, and Différance: A Critique

– Brendan Sweetman, ‘Postmodernism, Derrida, and Différance: A Critique,’ International Philosophical Quarterly 39:1 (1999): pp. 5-18.

Excerpt: “I define postmodernism as a movement whose central theme is the critique of objective rationality and identity, and a working out of the implications of this critique for… More

Interrupting Derrida

– Geoffrey Bennington, Interrupting Derrida (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).

This major new work by world-renowned Derrida scholar and translator, Geoffrey Bennington, presents incisive new readings of both Derrida and interpretations of his work. Part one sets out… More

The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics by Mark Lilla

– Mark Lilla, The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (New York: New York Review of Books Press, 2001): Chapter 6.

European history of the past century is full of examples of philosophers, writers, and jurists who, whether they lived in democratic, communist, or fascist societies, supported and defended… More

Derrida on Law by John McCormick

– John P. McCormick, “Derrida on Law; or, Poststructuralism gets Serious,” Political Theory 29 (2001): pp. 395-423.

Excerpt: In the wake of the Paul de Man controversy nearly a decade ago, Jacques Derrida delivered a lecture on the “Force of Law.” It had only recently come to light that de Man, an… More

Derrida’s Democracy to Come

– Matthias Fritsch, ‘Derrida’s Democracy to Come,’ Constellations 9:4 (2002): pp. 574-93.

Abstract: To assess the contribution of recent French thought to democratic theory, this paper discusses Derrida’s ‘democracy to come’ in relation to a quasi-transcendental account of… More

Down by Law by Richard Wolin

– Richard Wolin, “Down By Law: Deconstruction and the Problem of Justice,” in The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism: From Nietzsche to Postmodernism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004): pp. 220-256.

Fifteen years ago, revelations about the political misdeeds of Martin Heidegger and Paul de Man sent shock waves throughout European and North American intellectual circles. Ever since,… More

The Philosophy of Derrida

– Mark Dooley and Liam Kavanagh, The Philosophy of Derrida (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2007).

In The Philosophy of Derrida, Mark Dooley examines Derrida’s large body of work to provide an overview of his core philosophical ideas and a balanced appraisal of their lasting… More

Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life

– Martin Hägglund, Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008).

Radical Atheism presents a profound new reading of the influential French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Against the prevalent notion that there was an ethical or religious “turn”… More

Derrida and the Time of the Political

– Pheng Cheah and Suzanne Guerlac (eds), Derrida and the Time of the Political (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).

An intellectual event, Derrida and the Time of the Political marks the first time since Jacques Derrida’s death in 2004 that leading scholars have come together to critically assess the… More

Without Foundations: Plato’s Lysis and Postmodern Friendship

– Paul W. Ludwig, “Without Foundations: Plato’s Lysis and Postmodern Friendship,” American Political Science Review 104:1 (2010): pp. 134-50.

Abstract: Political theory has developed at important junctures by questioning its ontological foundations. Modern political thought begins by questioning the naturalness of human… More

Web Resources

The Derrida Seminars Translation Project: http://derridaseminars.org/ The website for the Derrida Today conference and journal: An excerpt from Benoît Peeters’ seminal biography… More

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