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Deconstruction is not neutral. It intervenes' Jacques Derrida
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An idiosyncratic and highly controversial French philosopher, Jacques Derrida inspired profound changes in disciplines as diverse as law, anthropology, literature and architecture. In Derrida's view, texts and contexts are woven with inconsistencies and blindspots, which provide us with a chance to think in new ways about, among other things, language, community, identity and forgiveness. Derrida's suggestions for "how to read" lead to a new vision of ethics and a new concept of responsibility. Penelope Deutscher discusses extracts from the full range of Derrida's work, including. Of Grammatology, Dissemination, Limited Inc, The Other Heading: Reflections on Europe, Monolinguism of the Other, Given Time, and Force of Law.
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The purity of the inside can only be restored if the charges are brought home against exteriority as a supplement, inessential yet harmful to the essence, a surplus that ought never to have come to be added to the untouched plenitude of the inside. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The purity of the inside can only be restored if the charges are brought home against exteriority as a supplement, inessential yet harmful to the essence, a surplus that ought never to have come to be added to the untouched plenitude of the inside. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The very idea of writing an introduction to Derrida, inevitably, always, leads to the practice of its impossibility.
One is never quite satisfied with what one reads, because like all supplements introductions tantalize us with the possibility of plenitude. YES! This is it: I have DERRIDA! However, in practice we are always left feeling empty - sometimes emptier than we began.
Derrida is somehow always ahead of us: an elusive, ghostly figure like David Bowie in Labyrinth.
However, this effort by Penelope Deutscher is much better than most other attempts: it is clearly written, with many well chosen examples to illustrate important Derridean insights. It also has the bonus ('supplement' if you will) of addressing some of Derrida's later concerns(such as 'Mourning' 'Hospitality' and 'Forgiveness'), which are suspiciously absent in most other introductions; although, admittedly, the ideas in these latter chapters are not as clearly delineated as the first few chapters on Derrida's early work. However, this is perhaps more due to the complexity of these later insights, rather than problems with Deutscher's elucidations.
All in all, this is the best recent introduction to Derrida that I know of (and I've read a fair few). In fact, I cannot think of a better place to begin (other than (there is always an other than, isn't there?) actually reading the works of the Derrida himself).
One is never quite satisfied with what one reads, because like all supplements introductions tantalize us with the possibility of plenitude. YES! This is it: I have DERRIDA! However, in practice we are always left feeling empty - sometimes emptier than we began.
Derrida is somehow always ahead of us: an elusive, ghostly figure like David Bowie in Labyrinth.
However, this effort by Penelope Deutscher is much better than most other attempts: it is clearly written, with many well chosen examples to illustrate important Derridean insights. It also has the bonus ('supplement' if you will) of addressing some of Derrida's later concerns(such as 'Mourning' 'Hospitality' and 'Forgiveness'), which are suspiciously absent in most other introductions; although, admittedly, the ideas in these latter chapters are not as clearly delineated as the first few chapters on Derrida's early work. However, this is perhaps more due to the complexity of these later insights, rather than problems with Deutscher's elucidations.
All in all, this is the best recent introduction to Derrida that I know of (and I've read a fair few). In fact, I cannot think of a better place to begin (other than (there is always an other than, isn't there?) actually reading the works of the Derrida himself).
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A reader is not the same as an introduction or a beginner's guide. It selects key passages from an author, and "brings the reader face-to-face with the writing itself in the company of an expert guide". Thus Penelope Deutscher explains -- or perhaps one should say explicates -- key passages of Derrida. This she does very well -- and while it is not easy reading, it is not inscrutable if one is prepared to concentrate.
In the main, Deutscher would seem to have chosen crucial extracts of Derrida. They are passages which should be read and understood. She takes little for granted, and explains all that needs to be explained to the reader -- lucidly and intelligently. In fact she effectively communicates the de(con)structive power of his work. She further draws comparisons between Derrida's early and late work, and highlights a few of the issues that were problematic to Derrida himself.
There were two things that I missed in this book. Firstly, I would have welcomed a more thorough comparison between Derrida's post-structuralism and the structuralism or (more broadly) modernism that went before. Secondly, Derrida's ideas were highly controversial, and there was little hint of this in the commentary. For what it is worth, however, this book is well written, and does much to deepen one's insight into Derrida.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't even START to read Derrida before you have read this... You will get so much more out of his books if you do. Delivered quickly and correctly.
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