Synopses & Reviews
Invited to answer questions about his relationship to Judaism, Jacques Derrida spoke through Franz Kafka: As for myself, I could imagine another Abraham.From the experience of a summons that surprises us and prompts the query Who, me?Derrida explores the movement between growing up Jewish, becoming Jewish,and Jewish beingor existence. His essay The Other Abrahamappears here in English for the first time. We no longer confront Judaismbut judeity,multiple Judaisms and Jewishnesses, manifold ways of being and writing as a Jew-in Derrida's case, as a French-speaking Algerian deprived of, then restored to French nationality in the 1940s. What is it to be a Jew and a philosopher? How has the notion of Jewish identitybeen written into and across Jewish literature, Jewish thought, and Jewish languages? Here distinguished scholars address these questions, contrasting Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem, and tracing confluences between deconstruction and Kabbalah. Derrida's relationship to the universalist aspirations in contemporary theology is also discussed, and his late autobiographical writings are evaluated. This multifaceted volume aims to open the question of Jewishness, above all, to hold it open as a question, though not one of practical or theoretical identity. As much a contestation of identity as a profound reflection on what it means today to seek, elude, and finally to wrestle with the significance of being-jew,Judeities invites us to revisit the human condition in the twenty-first century.
Review
". . .An impressive collection of essays stemming from a colloquium held in Paris in December 2000, addressing the work of Jacques Derrida. . .All essays are strong and provide for a text rich in material for fruitful contemplation."
Synopsis
Invited to answer questions about his relationship to Judaism, Jacques Derrida spoke through Franz Kafka: As for myself, I could imagine another Abraham. He explores the movement between growing up Jewish, becoming Jewish, and Jewish being or existence. In his essay The Other Abraham, which appears here in English for the first time, he imagines other Abrahams in light of the proclaimed universalism of philosophy and its recent fragmentation into philosophemes. Thus we no longer confront Judaism but Judeity, multiple Judaisms and Jewish existences, manifold ways of being and writing as a Jew--in Derrida's case, as a French-speaking Algerian deprived of, then restored to French nationality in the 1940s. Contributions contrast Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem, and trace confluences between deconstruction and Kabbalah. Derrida's relationship to the universalist aspirations in contemporary theology is also discussed, and an evaluation is offered of his late autobiographical writings.
About the Author
BETTINA BERGO is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montral and the author of
Levinas: Between Ethics and Politics. The most recent of her many translations is,with Michael B. Smith,
Judeities: Questions for Jacques Derrida (Fordham).
Joseph Cohen is Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Program Director at the College International Philosophie, Paris. He has published Le sacrifice de Hegel (2006) and Le spectre juif de Hegel (2005). Author of many articles, he recently edited Heidegger-le danger et la promesse (2006), a critical collection on Heidegger and the end of history.
Raphael Zagury-Orly is Professor of Philosophy at the Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts in Jerusalem and Researcher in Philosophy atthe University of Tel Aviv. He has translated Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida into Hebrew and is the author of many articles.
MICHAEL B. SMITH is Professor Emeritus of French and Philosophy at Berry College and the translator of many works, including, with Bettina Bergo, Judeities: Questions for Jacques Derrida(Fordham).