The Work of Mourning - Softcover

Derrida, Jacques

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226142817 ISBN 13: 9780226142814

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2003

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Jacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, "perhaps the world's most famous philosopher—if not the only famous philosopher." He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection that honors those friendships in the wake of passing.

Gathered here are texts—letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations—written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jab�s, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Fran�ois Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servi�re.

With his words, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of tact, taste, and ethical responsibility involved in speaking of the dead—the risks of using the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation, personal vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. More than a collection of memorial addresses, this volume sheds light not only on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent French thinkers of the past quarter century but also on some of the most important themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory, and friendship itself.

"In his rapt attention to his subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes—how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful work."—Steven Poole, Guardian

"Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."—Publishers Weekly

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About the Author:

Jacques Derrida is the director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books including The Gift of Death and Archive Fever, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Pascale-Anne Brault is an associate professor of French at DePaul University. Michael Naas is a professor of philosophy at DePaul University. Together they have translated several works by Derrida, including Memoirs of the Blind, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Adieu.

From Library Journal:

Over the last decade, Derrida (Of Grammatology), the doyen of deconstruction, has turned his attention to questions of ethics and politics. While the obtuse philosophical musings and sometimes torturous prose of his earlier books often frustrated readers, his more recent books (e.g., The Politics of Friendship) offer glimpses of Derrida's struggles to grapple honestly with the traces and aphorias of being that mark his more theoretical work. In this collection of funeral orations, letters of condolence, memorial essays, and eulogies, some published for the first time in English, Derrida celebrates close friends even as he grieves over their loss. The act of mourning, he says, begins as soon as friendship begins, for "one of the two of you will inevitably see the other one die." But the work of mourning is also a memorial act, for the other is alive in us, even after death. Characteristically, Derrida demonstrates the inextricable bond between name and memory; hearers remember a person when we speak his or her name, and thus we keep our friends alive. Some of these 14 pieces are marked by turgid prose, but others poignantly wrestle with life's ultimate mystery. Even so, this book will be most appropriate for academic libraries and large public libraries where Derrida is popular. Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
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