Derrida: A Critical Reader

Jacques Derrida′s prolific output has been the delight (and sometimes the despair) of philosophers and literary theorists for over twenty years. His influence on the way we read theoretical texts continues to be profound. No serious contemporary thinker can fail to come to terms with deconstruction and there have been a number of monographs devoted to his work. Very few, however, have combined a critical edge with a detailed knowledge of his writing. The contributors to this volume were each asked – in the most positive sense – to take just such a critical approach. There are substantive papers by Jean–Luc Nancy, Manfred Frank, John Sallis, Robert Bernasconi, Irene Harvey, Michel Haar, Christopher Norris, Geoff Bennington, John Llewelyn and an introduction by David Wood.

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgements. Reading Derrida: An Introduction (David Wood). 1. Passions: ‘An Oblique Offering’ (Jacques Derrida, Translated by David Wood). 2. Elliptical Sense (Jean–Luc Nancy, Translated by Peter Connor). 3. The Play of Nietzsche in Derrida (Michel Haar, Translated by Will McNeill). 4. Responsibility with Indecidability (John Llewelyn). 5. Mosaic Fragment: If Derrida Were an Egyptian…(Geoffrey Bennington). 6. Doublings (John Sallis). 7. No More Stories, Good or Bad: de Man’s Criticisms of Derrida on Rousseau (Robert Bernasconi). 8. Deconstruction, Postmodernism and Philosophy: Habermas on Derrida (Christopher Norris). 9. Derrida and the Issues of Exemplarity (Irene E. Harvey). 10. Is Sef–Consciousness a Case of Présence à soi? Towards a Meta–Critique of the Recent French Critique of Metaphysics (Manfred Frank, Translated by Andrew Bowie). 11. Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher (Richard Rorty)?. A Bibliography of the Works of Jacques Derrida (Albert Leventure with Thomas Keenan). Index (Prepared by Iain Hamilton Grant). Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgements. Reading Derrida: An Introduction (David Wood). 1. Passions: ‘An Oblique Offering’ (Jacques Derrida, Translated by David Wood). 2. Elliptical Sense (Jean–Luc Nancy, Translated by Peter Connor). 3. The Play of Nietzsche in Derrida (Michel Haar, Translated by Will McNeill). 4. Responsibility with Indecidability (John Llewelyn). 5. Mosaic Fragment: If Derrida Were an Egyptian…(Geoffrey Bennington). 6. Doublings (John Sallis). 7. No More Stories, Good or Bad: de Man’s Criticisms of Derrida on Rousseau (Robert Bernasconi). 8. Deconstruction, Postmodernism and Philosophy: Habermas on Derrida (Christopher Norris). 9. Derrida and the Issues of Exemplarity (Irene E. Harvey). 10. Is Sef–Consciousness a Case of Présence à soi? Towards a Meta–Critique of the Recent French Critique of Metaphysics (Manfred Frank, Translated by Andrew Bowie). 11. Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher (Richard Rorty)?. A Bibliography of the Works of Jacques Derrida (Albert Leventure with Thomas Keenan). Index (Prepared by Iain Hamilton Grant)

David Wood has published and lectured extensively on Derrida, including Derrida and Difference edited with Robert Bernasconi (1988). He is the author of Philosophy at the Limit (1990), and has edited a series of books in philosophy and literature, including Exceedingly Nietzsche (1988), The Provocation of Levinas (1988), Writing the Future (1990) and Philosophers′ Poets (1990). His Apocalyptic Thought: Derrida, Kant and the Limits of Reason will be published by Blackwell Publishers in 1992.

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