Derrida: Miscellaneous

During the last ten years of his life, Antonin Artaud shows more and more intensively a multi-faceted and caustic refusal for traditional literature and the ordinary practice of writing. But above all, he shows a stylistic impatience for the alphabetic use of the word and the language. By the intention of creating an inhuman language, which could be understood also by the illiterate people, Artaud wants to undermine the significant use of the word, so that he can achieve a non-representative (...) language, a language that could make real. In this perspective, the aim of our work consists in an inquiry of the expressive forms through which Artaud’s last literary production shows the refusal of canonical literature: especially, we attempt to work about the use of glossolalias, drawings and pictograms included in several Cahiers which Artaud draws up during his confinement in the Rodez’s madhouse, as well as in some of the letters that he writes since 1943. (shrink)

Helene Cixous is widely regarded as one of the world's most influential feminist writers and thinkers. "White Ink" brings together her most revealing interviews, available in English for the first time. Spanning over four decades and including a new interview with the editor Susan Sellers, this collection presents a brilliant, running commentary on the subjects at the heart of Cixous' writing. Here, Cixous discusses her books and her creative process, her views on and insights into literature, philosophy, theatre, politics, aesthetics, (...) faith and ethics, human relations and the state of the world.As she responds to interviewers' questions, Cixous is prompted to reflect on her roles and activities as poet, playwright, feminist theorist, professor of literature, philosopher, woman, Jew. Each interview is a remarkable performance, an event in language and thought where Cixous' celebrated intellectual and poetic force can be witnessed 'in action'. The accessibility of the interview format provides an excellent starting-point for readers new to Cixous, while those already familiar with her work will find unexpected insights and fresh elucidations of her thought. (shrink)

This Dictionary offers points of entry into Derrida's complex and extensive works. This Dictionary offers points of entry into Derrida's complex and extensive works. From 'aporia' to 'yes', the Dictionary suggests ways into Derrida that show what is at stake in his work. Demonstrates that Derrida is not just about philosophy, but also about politics and pop music. Explains why deconstruction matters, and how Derrida can change the way you think. The A-Z entries are framed by essays on the inherent (...) interdisciplinarity of Derrida's work and on Derrida's relationship to a range of other thinkers. (shrink)

Jacques Derrida, author of numerous, ground-breaking works on philosophy, literature, and aesthetic theory, has been at the centre of critical debates surrounding literary theories of deconstruction. In this critical study, the author provides an introduction to Derrida's thought. Champagne traces Derrida's intellectual formation for his early exchanges with Althusser, Hyppolite, and Foucault to his involvement with speech-act theory and the political engagement of feminist theory. Derrida is also known for his neologisms, and readers will find a helpful glossary to key (...) terms. (shrink)

Derrida is the last in the long tradition of recalcitrant French intellectuals, stretching from Rousseau, through Sartre, to Foucault. Typically, he disagrees with all his predecessors. His close philosophical scrutiny led him to formulate the notion of 'deconstruction'. According to Derrida, this 'should seek a new investigation of responsibility, questioning the codes inherited from ethics and politics'. These witty and informative guides cover the lives and ideas of the major philosophers. Award-winning author Paul Strathern's concise and easily comprehensible style highlights (...) the major advances in philosophy, as well as the men who conceived them and the times in which they lived. Packed with striking quotes, insights and anecdotes, the aim of the Virgin Philosophers Series is to clarify the mysteries of philosophy for the general reader. (shrink)

In this essay, I argue for an alliance between deconstruction and feminist theology. I forge this alliance by demonstrating deconstruction's usefulness for helping feminist theology deal more adequately with differences of race between women. I argue that 'deconstruction' can help feminist theology uncover the roots of its hegemony and learn to think 'race' and 'gender' differently. ;According to my reading of deconstruction, Derrida and Irigaray uncover a persistent patterning which structures our institutions, our thinking, our writing, our politics, etc. This (...) is what Derrida means by 'the text of western metaphysics' and what Irigaray calls the west's 'cultural grammar.' Their analyses suggest that this text is not a tool which we can pick up or put down at will. Rather, it inscribes us as much as we inscribe it. ;Feminist theology exhibits inscription by this text. I argue that the central texts of feminist theology are governed by the discursive structure of an essential 'woman' which blinds feminist theology to the difference 'race' makes for 'gender.' Through a reading of Derrida, Irigaray, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on 'race' and 'gender,' I show that feminist theology's separation of an essential 'woman' from 'race' emerges out of a larger text which attempts to keep the differences of 'race' and 'gender' in check. ;Deconstruction also offers strategies for intervening in this text in order to disrupt its mastery of these differences. These interventions open the text up for those whom the text defines as its 'others' allowing us to inhabit the text differently. Following out the problematics of 'race' and 'gender' in deconstruction undercuts the trajectory of their separation in feminist theology . In helping feminist theology unearth the roots of its own hegemony and think race and gender differently, I argue that deconstruction also offers feminist theology resources for carrying its critique and construction to a deeper level. Thus, this essay serves as a prolegomenon to further feminist theological reflection through this alliance. (shrink)

First published in 1999, this volume perceives that English literature in under threat as an academic discipline. In Challenging Theory, Catherine Burgass warns against the recent trend towards the conflation of literature teaching with cultural studies in British and American universities. Focusing on theory of deconstruction, as developed by Jacques Derrida in the 1960s, the book redresses some common mistenterpretations of Derrinda's work relating to the status of metaphysical oppositions. Part One discusses textual differences and the ways in which these (...) may dissolve and reform according to different cultural contexts. The practical issues associated with teaching literature and literary theory in universities are examined in Part Two, while Part Three high-lights some of the move invidious claims of literary theorists, and questions the value of metaphysical analysis as a tool for political critique. Challenging Theory tackles an important debate that lies at the heart of humanities teaching. It illuminates the impact on academia of the work of critical theorists over the last thirty tears, and provides a platform for future reassessment of the relationships between literature, philosophy and theory. (shrink)

This brief text assists students in understanding Derrida's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON DERRIDA is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers (...) sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher, better enabling students to engage in reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. (shrink)

La philosophie de Jacques Derrida, une des plus novatrices, mais aussi une des plus lues, traduites, et commentées aujourd'hui au monde, se caractérise par une création verbale constante, prolifique, et souvent provocante. Si vous ne supportez plus de ne pas saisir exactement ce que désignent " la différance " (avec un " a "), " l'archi-écriture ", la " déconstruction ", la " grammatologie ", mais aussi le " coup de donc ", la " cartepostalisation " ou " l'exappropriation " (...) (pour s'en tenir aux termes les plus connus et les plus répétés depuis plus de trente ans), ce Vocabulaire est fait pour vous! La plupart des termes significatifs employés ou créés par Derrida y sont en effet expliqués aussi clairement que la matière le permet, tout comme les raisons des obscurités délibérées - sans que soit ici promise au lecteur quelque maîtrise totale ou définitive, qui irait à contresens du geste même de la doctrine. (shrink)

The article deals with Derrida’s interpretation of Plato’s notion of pharmakon. Pharmakon is the Greek word which has two opposite meanings – “cure” and “poison”. The concept of pharmakon, according to Derrida, produces a play of binary oppositions crucial to Western logocentric tradition: remedy/poison, speech/writing, good/bad, interior/exterior, etc. In Plato’s Pharmacy Derrida questions the main distinction between speech and writing. He argues that speech was viewed as the “original” form of language by Plato and the Western tradition. Writing is a (...) later development – essentially bad, external to memory, productive not of truth but of appearances. Derrida, in his theory of archi-writing, turns upside down the opposition by showing that speech is a form of writing. Also, when reading Plato, Derrida reveals an interconnection between the words pharmakon (remedy), pharmakeus (sorcerer, magician) and pharmakos (scapegoat) which was never used by Plato but, according to Derrida, plays an important role in the character of Socrates. Socrates as pharmakeus becomes the most famous pharmakos in Athens after he drinks the pharmakon. (shrink)

One of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth-century, Jacques Derrida’s ideas on deconstruction have had a lasting impact on philosophy, literature and cultural studies. Jacques Derrida: Basic Writings is the first anthology to present his most important philosophical writings and is an indispensable resource for all students and readers of his work. Barry Stocker’s clear and helpful introductions set each reading in context, making the volume an ideal companion for those coming to Derrida’s writings for the first (...) time. The selections themselves range from his most infamous works including Speech and Phenomena and Writing and Difference to lesser known discussion on aesthetics, ethics and politics. (shrink)

This book begins with Derrida's text, based on a lecture he gave in Montreal and is followed by two texts commenting on it. Derrida gives one of his most precise developments on the notion of 'l'événement' (event), that which comes to disturb the course of history and thus escapes the normal ways of being told and understood. His thought on the topic is crucial for future research on literature as testimony, refering to abnormal conditions of experience whose nature exceeds usual (...) narrative norms. This work is on two components of European culture : French West Indian and Black British literature (memory of slavery) and Spanish literature (civil war and refugees camps). Ce volume prolonge les réflexions du séminaire tenu à Montréal, articulé autour de la question " Dire l'événement, est-ce possible ? ". Les contributions de Gad Soussana ("De l'événement depuis la nuit" suivi de "Arriver") et d'Alexis Nouss ("Parole sans voix") tentent d'en prendre la mesure à partir des problématiques de l'origine et du posthume. Mais l'essentiel, en elles, aura été de susciter la réponse de Jacques Derrida : " Une certaine possibilité impossible de dire l'événement ". Plus qu'une simple rencontre, ce séminaire explicite la présence d'une pensée de l'événement au cœur de l'œuvre littéraire et de l'œuvre philosophique. (shrink)

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 5, Page 687-688, August 2012.

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between Jacques Derrida's philosophy and comparative legal studies.

The first attempt at assessing the references to interpretation theory in the Nietzschean text.

This article interrogates a certain philosophical scene – one which constitutes itself through the position of what Jacques Derrida calls “the ethical instance of violence.” This scene supposes a certain “style” of writing or doing philosophy, and perhaps even a certain philosophical “genre” or “subgenre”: the philosophical discourse on violence. In the course of the essay, I analyze this quasi-juridical scene through readings of Aristotle, Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek, Werner Hamacher, Rodolphe Gasché, and Martin Hägglund among (...) others. The scene, built on texts on texts on violence, demands a logic of purity; it is wary of contaminations and equivocations. And yet it thrives on them. In analyzing the implications of text, writing, and trace for the philosophical discourse on violence, I follow Derrida “just to see” what could make the scene tremble. (shrink)

Recensione a "Tracce dell’informe. L’indecostruibile e la filosofia dell’evento in Jacques Derrida", opera prima di Sergio Genovesi, pubblicata da Mimesis Edizioni per la collana "Eterotopie".

In this book, Rodolphe Gasche returns to some of the founding texts of deconstruction to propose a new and broader way of understanding it not as an operation or method to reach an elusive outside, or beyond, of metaphysics, but as something that takes place within it. Rather than unraveling metaphysics, deconstruction loosens its binary and hierarchical conceptual structure. To make this case, Gasche focuses on the concepts of force and violence in the work of Jacques Derrida, looking to his (...) essays Force and Signification and Force of Law, and his reading on "Of Grammatology" in Claude Levi-Strauss s autobiographical "Tristes Tropiques." The concept of force has not drawn extensive scrutiny in Derrida scholarship, but it is crucial to understanding how, by way of spacing and temporizing, philosophical opposition is reinscribed into a differential economy of forces. Gasche concludes with an essay addressing the question of deconstruction and judgment and considers whether deconstruction suspends the possibility of judgment, or whether it is, on the contrary, a hyperbolic demand for judgment.". (shrink)

The reflection elaborated in these pages, fleeing all submission to the now abused rhetoric of the prevailing economism, traces in the works of René Girard - the most serious pretender to the legacy of the masters of suspicion - and Jacques Derrida - the last great philosopher of the twentieth century - the constituent elements of a critical paradigm with which to interpret the present time. The volume investigates the multiple correspondences between the different legacies of deconstruction and the most (...) recent developments of mimetic theory through the articulated reconstruction of the reflections, still little known in Italy, of some of the most brilliant contemporary exponents of those traditions. Formulating the features of an ontology of actuality hinged on the notions of mimesis and trace, the author proposes a philosophical diagnosis that recognizes in our time an age in the grip of panic. (shrink)

Few thinkers of the latter half of the twentieth century have so profoundly and radically transformed our understanding of writing and literature as Jacques Derrida. Derridian deconstruction remains one of the most powerful intellectual movements of the present century, and Derrida's own innovative writings on literature and philosophy are crucially relevant for any understanding of the future of literature and literary criticism today. Derrida's own manner of writing is complex and challenging and has often been misrepresented or misunderstood. In this (...) book, Leslie Hill provides an accessible introduction to Derrida's writings on literature which presupposes no prior knowledge of Derrida's work. He explores in detail Derrida's relationship to literary theory and criticism, and offers close readings of some of Derrida's best known essays. This introduction will help those coming to Derrida's work for the first time, and suggests further directions to take in studying this hugely influential thinker. (shrink)

One of the most significant contemporary thinkers in continental philosophy, Jacques Derrida’s work continues to attract heated commentary among philosophers, literary critics, social and cultural theorists, architects and artists. 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 Derrida’s work as a whole and examines its relevance to, and ‘interruption’ of, the traditional domains of ethics, politics and literature. The second (...) part of the book presents compelling insights into some important motifs in Derrida’s work, such as death, friendship, psychoanalysis, time and endings. The final section introduces trenchant appraisals of other influential accounts of Derrida’s work. This influential and original contribution to the literature on Derrida is marked by a commitment to clarity and accuracy, but also by a refusal to simplify Derrida’s often difficult thought. (shrink)

This extraordinary book offers a clear and compelling biography of Jacques Derrida along with one of Derrida's strangest and most unexpected texts. Geoffrey Bennington's account of Derrida leads the reader through the philosopher's familiar yet widely misunderstood work on language and writing to the less familiar themes of signature, sexual difference, law, and affirmation. In an unusual and unprecedented "dialogue," Derrida responds to Bennington's text by interweaving Bennington's text with surprising and disruptive "periphrases." Truly original, this dual and dueling text (...) opens new dimensions in Derrida's thought and work. "Bennington is a shrewd and well-informed commentator whose book should do something to convince the skeptics... that Jacques Derrida's work merits serious attention."—Christopher Norris, _New Statesman & Society_ "Geoffrey Bennington and Jacques Derrida have presented a fascinating example of what might be called post-structuralist autobiography."—Laurie Volpe, _French Review_ "Bennington's account of what Derrida is up to is better in almost all respects—more intelligent, more plausible, more readable, and less pretentious—than any other I have read."—Richard Rorty, _Contemporary Literature_. (shrink)

This critical survey of issues in European philosophy offers detailed accounts of crucial texts by important thinkers. Sedgwick draws key ideas from these sources, analyzing the various relationships between them and linking them to central themes in philosophical enquiry, such as the nature of subjectivity, reason and experience, anti-humanism, and the nature of language.Areas explored include epistemology, metaphysics and ontology, ethics and politics. Aspects of the work of a broad range of thinkers is considered in detail, including Descartes, Locke, Hume, (...) Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Adorno and Horkheimer, Heidegger, Deleuze and Guatarri, Levinas, Derrida, Althusser, Foucault and Lyotard. This intriguing new work presents the complex ideas of European philosophy in a straightforward manner, and will be of interest to both introductory and advanced-level readers. (shrink)

Jacques Derrida: Key Concepts presents a broad overview and engagement with the full range of Derrida's work - from the early phenomenological thinking to his preoccupations with key themes, such as technology, psychoanalysis, friendship, Marxism, racism and sexism, to his ethico-political writings and his deconstruction of democracy. Presenting both an examination of the key concepts central to his thinking and a broader study of how that thinking shifted over a lifetime, the book offers the reader a clear, systematic and fresh (...) examination of the astounding breadth of Derrida's philosophy. (shrink)