Derrida: Deconstruction from Phenomenology to Ethics

by Christina Howells

Overview

This book is a lucid account of the development of Derrida's work, from his early writings on phenomenology and structuralism to his most recent interventions in debates on psychoanalysis, ethics and politics. It explores his critique of the notion of self-presence through his engagement will Husserl, and his critique of humanist conceptions of the subject through an account of his ambivalent and evolving relationship to the philosophy of Sartre.

The question of the relationship between philosophy and literature is examined through an analysis of the texts of the 1970s, and in particular Glas, where Derrida confronts Hegel's totalizing dialectics with the fragmentary and iconoclastic writings of Jean Genet. The book addresses the vexe questions of the extreme difficulty of Derrida's own writing and of the passionate hostility it arouses in philosophers as diverse as Searle and Habermas. It argues that deconstruction is a vital stimulus vigilance in both the ethical and political spheres, contributing significantly to debate on issues such as democracy, the legacy of Marxism, responsibility, and the relationship between law and justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745667270
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	04/24/2013
Series:	Key Contemporary Thinkers
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	541 KB

About the Author

Christina Howells is Reader in French and Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.

Abbreviations.

Apologia.

1. Phenomenology.

2. Structuralism.

3. Language: Speech and Writing.

4. Deconstructing the Text: Literature and Philosophy.

5. Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis.

6. The Ethics and Politics of Deconstruction and the Deconstruction of Ethics and Politics.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Christina Howells has written a sharply focused study which will delight equally those who have not yet started reading Derrida and those who cannot stop. Its concise and elegant expositions of texts ranging from his very early to his very recent ones will disarm all but the most dogmatic of Derridaphobes, showing them gently but firmly that their resistance arises from their own misconstruction of how deconstruction works. All Derridaphiles will wish that they themselves had written this just and responsible book." John Llewelyn, lately Reader in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and Visiting Professor at the University of Memphis and Loyola University of Chicago

"As we have come to expect from Christina Howells' exemplary earlier work on Sartre, this book on Derrida is comprehensively researched, clearly written and strongly argued. It is a valuable and much-needed addition to the literature that will be essential reading for anybody interested in Derrida." Simon Critchley, University of Essex

"interesting – her claims around the idea that deconstructive readings subject philosophical texts "to the same kind of analysis as literary ones" are particularly thought-provoking" Simon Glendinning, Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher