Understanding Derrida

About this book

Jacques Derrida continues to be the worlds single most influential philosophical and literary theorist. He is also one of the most controversial and most complex. His own works and critical studies of his work proliferate, but where can a student, utterly new to the work of Derrida, start? Understanding Derrida is written as an introduction to the full range of Derridas key ideas and influences. It brings together the worlds leading authorities on Derrida, each writing a short, accessible essay on one central aspect of his work. Framed by a clear introduction and a complete bibliography of Derridas publications in English, the essays systematically analyze one aspect of Derridas work, each essay including a quick summary of Derridas books which have addressed this theme, guiding the student towards a direct engagement with Derridas texts. The essays cover language, metaphysics, the subject, politics, ethics, the decision, translation, religion, psychoanalysis, literature, art, and Derridas seminal relationship to other philosophers, namely Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, Hegel and Nietzsche.