Abstract

Studies of deconstruction frequently focus on concepts that figure prominently in Derrida's texts; examples are "economy," "differance," and "writing." In addition, Derrida's identity as a Jew, his references to Judaism and the influence Judaism may have had on his work have occasionally been noted. This dissertation closely reads four texts by Derrida which use a constellation of Jewish concepts and in which Judaism has an important place. The aim is to determine the place that these Jewish concepts have in Derrida's enterprise of the deconstruction of the tradition of Western philosophy. ;Chapter One examines a section of Derrida's reading of Hegel and metaphysical philosophy in Glas. Derrida concentrates especially on how Hegel constructs his philosophy, on its sacrificial logic, and on the place the Christian and the Jew occupy in his philosophical system. Chapter Two reads Cinders, a text that is rarely attended to, as a lyrical attempt to adumbrate the concept "cinder" or ash--the most minimal material remains of a "holocaust" or all-burning. Derrida's stated objective is commemorative--to retain loss as loss--so his text is styled not as a contestatory deconstruction of another's text but as a rumination in an archive of Derrida's own statements about loss, annihilation and memory. ;Chapter Three analyzes "Shibboleth," an essay written in memory of the German-Jewish poet Paul Celan. In it, Derrida works out the double-edge of concepts such as "date," "border," "password," "circumcision," and "Jew," all of which mark sites of division and difference, on the one hand, and membership, on the other. Chapter Four examines Circumfessions, Derrida's autobiographical account of his work, of the place Judaism has in his life, and of his mother's impending death. The book's elliptical style and obsessive repetitions enact the Jewish figure of circumcision, and the numerous citations from Augustine's Confessions with which Derrida laces his own text suggest the Christian figure of the cross. Circumfessions, with the generous space that it gives to the other and with the solace it draws from an ancient text, can be read as a possible response of a Jew to a Christian