Synopses & Reviews
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."and#8212;Christopher Norris, New Statesman and Society
"Geoffrey Bennington and Jacques Derrida have presented a fascinating example of what might be called post-structuralist autobiography."and#8212;Laurie Volpe, French Review
"Bennington's account of what Derrida is up to is better in almost all respectsand#8212;more intelligent, more plausible, more readable, and less pretentiousand#8212;than any other I have read."and#8212;Richard Rorty, Contemporary Literature
Synopsis
Geoffrey Bennington sets out here to write a systematic account of the thought of Jacques Derrida. Responding to Bennington's text at every turn is Derrida's own excerpts from his life and thought that, appearing at the bottom of each page, resist circumscription. Together these texts, as a dialogue and a contest, constitute a remarkably in-depth, critical introduction to one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century and, at the same time, demonstrate the illusions inherent in such a project. Bennington's account of Derrida, broader in scope than any previously done, leads the reader through the philosopher's familiar yet still widely misunderstood work on language and writing to the less familiar and altogether more mysterious themes of signature, sexual difference, law, and affirmation. Seeking to escape this systematic rendering - in fact, to prove it impossible - Derrida interweaves Bennington's text with surprising and disruptive "periphrases": reflections on his mother's death agony, commentaries on St. Augustine's Confessions, memories of childhood, remarks on Judaism, and references to his collaborator's efforts. This extraordinary book offers, on the one hand, a clear and compelling account of one of the most difficult and important contemporary thinkers and, on the other, one of that thinker's strangest and most unexpected texts. Far from putting an end to the need to discuss Derrida, Bennington's text might have originally intended or pretended, this dual text opens new dimensions in the philosopher's thought and work and extends its challenge.
About the Author
Jacques Derrida (1930and#8211;2004) was director of studies at the and#201;cole des hautes and#233;tudes en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
"This book presupposes a contract"
Derridabase by Geoffrey Bennington
With Time
Remark
The Beginning
The Sign
Writing
Husserl
Diffandeacute;rance
Context
Beyond
The Proper Name
Circumfession by Jacques Derrida
Time and Finitude
Metaphor
The Unconscious
The Signature
Translation
Babel
Literature
The Gift
Sexual Difference
The Mother: Chora
Femininity
Politics
The Title
The Institution
The Series: (Quasi-) Transcendental Questions
The Closure
The Jew
Striction
Being the Other
The Machine
Envoi
Acts (The Law of Genre)
Curriculum Vitae
Bibliography (including list of abbreviations of Derrida's works cited in text)
Supplemental Bibliography
Illustration Sources