Synopses & Reviews
Written in the wake of Jacques Derrida's death in 2004, Derrida From Now On attempts both to do justice to the memory of Derrida and to demonstrate the continuing significance of his work for contemporary philosophy and literary theory. If Derrida's thought is to remain relevant for us today, it must be at once understood in its original context and uprooted and transplanted elsewhere. Michael Naas thus begins with an analysis of Derrida's attachment to the French language, to Europe, and to European secular thought, before turning to Derrida's long engagement with the American context and to the ways in which deconstruction allows us to rethink the history, identity, and promise of post-9/11 America. Taking as its point of departure several of Derrida's later works (from Faith and Knowledgeand The Work of Mourning to Rogues and Learning to Live Finally), the book demonstrates how Derrida's analyses of the phantasms of sovereignty, the essential autoimmunity of democracy or religion, or the impossible mourning of the nation-state can help us to understand what is happening today in American culture, literature, and politics. Though Derrida's thought has always lived on only by being translated elsewhere, his disappearance will have driven home this necessity with a new force and an unprecedented urgency. Derrida From Now On is an effect of this force and an attempt to respond to this urgency.
Review
"Naas is a true heir of Derrida."
Review
". . . In this informed, readable, and brightly illuminating but challenging book, Naas examines the philosopher's recent work ("Faith and Knowledge," Rogues, Learning to Live Finally) in ethics, religion, and political theory. He demonstrates how later themes--sovereignty, autoimmunity, secularism--build on and inform works stretching back to the 1960s. In the process, Naas displays the robust and rigorous character of Derrida's work, its stunning originality, and its trenchant critique of the present and openness to that which is to come--often with a clarity that Derrida's own style made difficult to discern. In so doing, Naas pays fitting homage to a mentor who, one learns, identified with the dog Toto in The Wizard of Oz, as one who delighted in pulling aside the curtains to reveal the illusions created by white-haired wizards. Summing Up: Highly recommended."--Choice
Review
"Naas is a true heir of Derrida."Dawne McCance, University of Manitoba
Review
Michael Naas's Derrida From Now On has the depth and seriousness thatexperienced readers of Derrida will demand. Yet the style of the bookis so clear and direct, so engaging, that those who are just beginningto read Derrida will also be eminently rewarded by it. A remarkableachievement! -David Farrell Krell
Naas is a true heir of Derrida.-Dawne McCance
A genuine homage to Derrida.-Leonard Lawlor
About the Author
Michael Naas is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. His most recent books include
Taking on the Tradition: Jacques Derrida and the Legacies of Deconstruction and
Derrida from Now On (Fordham).