Writing and Difference - Softcover

Derrida, Deceased Jacques

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022650283X ISBN 13: 9780226502830

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Synopsis

First published in 1967, Writing and Difference, a collection of Jacques Derrida's essays written between 1959 and 1966, has become a landmark of contemporary French thought. In it we find Derrida at work on his systematic deconstruction of Western metaphysics. The book's first half, which includes the celebrated essay on Descartes and Foucault, shows the development of Derrida's method of deconstruction. In these essays, Derrida demonstrates the traditional nature of some purportedly nontraditional currents of modern thought--one of his main targets being the way in which "structuralism" unwittingly repeats metaphysical concepts in its use of linguistic models.

The second half of the book contains some of Derrida's most compelling analyses of why and how metaphysical thinking must exclude writing from its conception of language, finally showing metaphysics to be constituted by this exclusion. These essays on Artaud, Freud, Bataille, Hegel, and Lévi-Strauss have served as introductions to Derrida's notions of writing and différence--the untranslatable formulation of a nonmetaphysical "concept" that does not exclude writing--for almost a generation of students of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis.

Writing and Difference reveals the unacknowledged program that makes thought itself possible. In analyzing the contradictions inherent in this program, Derrida foes on to develop new ways of thinking, reading, and writing, --new ways based on the most complete and rigorous understanding of the old ways. Scholars and students from all disciplines will find Writing and Difference an excellent introduction to perhaps the most challenging of contemporary French thinkers--challenging because Derrida questions thought as we know it.

About this title

Review:

'Perhaps the world's most famous philosopher.' - New York Times

From the Back Cover:

'Almost from the moment deconstruction emerged as a glittering force on the academic scene, its many detractors have been saying that it is 'dead'. And yet the term deconstruction has penetrated almost every aspect of culture.' - New York Times

In the 1960s a radical concept emerged from the great French thinker Jacques Derrida. He called the new process 'deconstruction'. Rewriting the ways in which we use language and literature, deconstruction affected every form of intellectual thought, from literary criticism to popular culture. It also criticized the entire tradition of Western philosophy, from Plato to Bataille. The academic community was rocked on a scale hitherto unknown, with 'Writing and Difference' attracting both accolades and derision. Whatever the response, deconstruction is here to stay. Read the book that changed the way we think; read 'Writing and Difference', the classic introduction.

Jacques Derrida (1930- ). Born in Algeria, he has been called the most famous philosopher of our time. He is also a political activist.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 022650283X
• ISBN 13: 9780226502830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 362