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Derrida's Biography & Bibliography

Biography

Derrida

Jacques Derrida

There is no question that Jacques Derrida (Algeria, 1939 - Paris, 2004) is more widely known in the United States than any other contemporary French philosopher. His philosophical ideas on phenomenology and structuralism have created a breach in the Western logocentric tradition. He is part of the poststructuralist movement.

Deconstructionist theory (L’écriture et la différence, 1967) is undoubtedly Derrida's greatest contribution to literary studies. Derrida's ideas became popular in the United States in the late sixties, following a seminar he gave that aroused unprecedented interest in the academic community. Structuralist thought has been systematically built on a binarism that Derrida takes great pains to deconstruct, so that rigid oppositions such as nature/culture and other/self are no longer tenable. The field of feminist studies has appropriated Derrida's deconstructionist theses with the aim of abolishing the apriorisms of patriarchy.

In addition to the polyvocal conception of the sign, we are indebted to Derrida for concepts such as arche-writing, the trace, closure and différance (De la grammatologie, 1967). These notions fit into a way of thinking that denies the existence of an absolute origin. From sign to sign, meaning is forever in flux.

Selected Bibliography

In English

BLOOM, H., P. DE MAN, J. DERRIDA, G.H. HARTMAN, dir. Deconstruction and Criticism, London and Henley: Routledge and K. Paul, 1979.
DERRIDA, J., Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.
DERRIDA, J., Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
DERRIDA, J., Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
DERRIDA, J., Plato's Pharmacy, in Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981,pp. 61-84.
DERRIDA, J., Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
DERRIDA, J., Positions, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
DERRIDA, J., "Limited Inc abc...", trans. Samuel Weber. Glyph 2, Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1977, pp. 162-254.
DERRIDA, J., Signéponge=Signsponge, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.

In French

DERRIDA, J., De la Grammatologie, Paris: Minuit, 1967.
DERRIDA, J., L’écriture et la différence, Paris: Seuil, 1967.
DERRIDA, J., La Voix et le phénomène. Introduction au problème du signe dans la phénoménologie de Husserl, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1967.
DERRIDA, J., La dissémination, Paris: Seuil, 1972.
DERRIDA, J., La pharmacie de Platon, Paris: Seuil, 1972.
DERRIDA, J., Marges de la philosophie, Paris: Minuit, 1972.
DERRIDA, J., Positions, Paris: Minuit, 1972.
DERRIDA, J., Glas, Paris: Galilée, 1974.
DERRIDA, J., Limited inc., abc… [a variant of the title Signature événement contexte], Paris: Galilée, 1977.
DERRIDA, J., La carte postale : de Socrate à Freud et au-delà, Paris: Flammarion, 1980.
DERRIDA, J., Otobiographies. L’enseignement de Nietzsche et la politique du nom propre, Paris: Galilée, 1984.
DERRIDA, J., Le monologuisme de l’autre, ou La prothèse d’origine, Paris: Galilée, 1996.
HANTAÏ, S., J. DERRIDA, J.-L. NANCY, La Connaissance des textes. Lecture d'un manuscrit illisible, Paris: Galilée, 2001.

Derroda's Theories


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