Derrida (eBook)

A Biography

Benoit Peeters (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2013 | 1. Auflage
700 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-7615-9 (ISBN)

Infos

This biography of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) tells the
story of a Jewish boy from Algiers, excluded from school at the age
of twelve, who went on to become the most widely translated French
philosopher in the world - a vulnerable, tormented man who,
throughout his life, continued to see himself as unwelcome in the
French university system. We are plunged into the different worlds
in which Derrida lived and worked: pre-independence Algeria, the
microcosm of the École Normale Supérieure, the cluster of
structuralist thinkers, and the turbulent events of 1968 and after.
We meet the remarkable series of leading writers and philosophers
with whom Derrida struck up a friendship: Louis Althusser, Emmanuel
Levinas, Jean Genet, and Hélène Cixous, among others. We
also witness an equally long series of often brutal polemics fought
over crucial issues with thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques
Lacan, John R. Searle, and Jürgen Habermas, as well as several
controversies that went far beyond academia, the best known of
which concerned Heidegger and Paul de Man. We follow a series of
courageous political commitments in support of Nelson Mandela,
illegal immigrants, and gay marriage. And we watch as a concept
- deconstruction - takes wing and exerts an
extraordinary influence way beyond the philosophical world, on
literary studies, architecture, law, theology, feminism, queer
theory, and postcolonial studies.

In writing this compelling and authoritative biography,
Benoît Peeters talked to over a hundred individuals who knew
and worked with Derrida. He is also the first person to make
use of the huge personal archive built up by Derrida throughout his
life and of his extensive correspondence. Peeters' book
gives us a new and deeper understanding of the man who will perhaps
be seen as the major philosopher of the second half of the
twentieth century.

Autor

Benoît Peeters was born in Paris in 1956. Following a degree in Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris I), he went on to study for his Masters at the École Pratique des Hautes Études under the direction of Roland Barthes. He has since published over forty works on a wide variety of subjects and has written essays and biographies on Hergé, Alfred Hitchcock, and Paul Valéry.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

PART I JACKIE 1930-1962

1 The Negus 1930-1942 9

2 Under the Sun of Algiers 1942-1949 19

3 The Walls of Louis-le-Grand 1949-1952 35

4 The École Normale Supérieure 1952-1956 59

5 A Year in America 1956-1957 80

6 The Soldier of Koléa 1957-1959 92

7 Melancholia in Le Mans 1959-1960 108

8 Towards Independence 1960-1962 113

PART II DERRIDA 1963-1983

1 From Husserl to Artaud 1963-1964 127

2 In the Shadow of Althusser 1963-1966 144

3 Writing Itself 1965-1966 155

4 A Lucky Year 1967 170

5 A Period of Withdrawal 1968 186

6 Uncomfortable Positions 1969-1971 207

7 Severed Ties 1972-1973 230

8 Glas 1973-1975 256

9 In Support of Philosophy 1973-1976 267

10 Another Life 1976-1977 288

11 From the Nouveaux Philosophes to the Estates General
1977-1979 298

12 Postcards and Proofs 1979-1981 308

13 Night in Prague 1981-1982 332

14 A New Hand of Cards 1982-1983 342

PART III JACQUES DERRIDA 1984-2004

1 The Territories of Deconstruction 1984-1986 355

2 From the Heidegger Aff air to the de Man Aff air
1987-1988 379

3 Living Memory 1988-1990 402

4 Portrait of the Philosopher at Sixty 417

5 At the Frontiers of the Institution 1991-1992 440

6 Of Deconstruction in America 451

7 Specters of Marx 1993-1995 462

8 The Derrida International 1996-1999 478

9 The Time of Dialogue 2000-2002 495

10 In Life and in Death 2003-2004 518

Notes 543

Sources 593

Bibliography 596

Index 605

Rezensionen

''Peeters has ransacked the voluminous Derrida archives and
interviewed scores of his friends and colleagues. The result is a
marvellously compelling account, lucidly translated by Andrew
Brown. The man who emerges from this portrait is an agonised soul
with sudden outbreaks of gaiety, an astonishingly original thinker
with more than a dash of vanity who nevertheless made himself fully
available to the humblest student.''

Terry Eagleton, The Guardian

''Exhaustive and exhilarating.''

The Scotsman

''A real tour de force. Assimilating a vast amount of material
Derrida's own voluminous publications, unpublished documents
and correspondence, and conversations with a host of acquaintances
D Benoit Peeters has produced a compelling narrative that
sheds light on all aspects of Derrida's remarkable
career.''

Jonathan Culler, Cornell University

''If you've ever given up on Derrida, this portrait of him
as a lovable, thin-skinned and narcissistic outsider in France who
shot to fame in the United States should make you
reconsider.''

New Statesman

''In his impressive, massive biography... Benoit Peeters,
a former student of Derrida's, tells a captivating tale of
the enfant terrible outsider.''

Wichita Eagle

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.4.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Schlagworte: Literary Theory • Literature • Literaturtheorie • Literaturwissenschaft • Philosophie • Philosophy • Philosophy of Language • Sprachphilosophie
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-7615-4 / 0745676154
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-7615-9 / 9780745676159