Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida

Derrida, Jacques

ISBN 10: 0823290298 / ISBN 13: 9780823290291

Published by Fordham University Press, New York, 2021

About this Item

8vo, 215 pp., Edited & with a commentary by John D. Caputo., Perspectives in Continental Philosophy series.

Seller Inventory # 120766

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida
• Publisher: Fordham University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823290298
• ISBN 13: 9780823290291
• Binding: softcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Fine copy
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

This volume, now with a substantial new Introduction, represents one of the most lucid, compact and reliable introductions to Derrida and deconstruction available in any language.

Responding to questions put to him at a roundtable held at Villanova University in 1994, Jacques Derrida leads the reader through an illuminating discussion of the central themes of deconstruction. Speaking in English and extemporaneously, Derrida takes up with unusual clarity and great eloquence such topics as the task of philosophy, the Greeks, justice, responsibility, the gift, community, and the messianic. Derrida refutes the charges of relativism that are often leveled at deconstruction by its critics and sets forth the profoundly affirmative and ethico-political thrust of his work.

The roundtable is marked by an unusual clarity that continues into the second part of the book, in which one of Derrida’s most influential readers, John D. Caputo, elaborates upon Derrida’s comments and supplies material for further discussion.

This edition also includes a substantial new Introduction by Caputo that discusses the original context of the book and traces the development of deconstruction since Derrida’s death in 2004, from the rise of new materialisms to return to religion.

Long one of the most lucid and reliable introductions to Derrida and deconstruction available in any language, and an ideal volume for students, Deconstruction in a Nutshell will also prove illuminating for those already familiar with Derrida’s work.

About the Authors

Jacques Derrida was the single most influential voice in European philosophy for the last third of the twentieth century. His many books include Of Grammatology, Specters of Marx, and The Animal That Therefore I Am.

John D. Caputo is Thomas J. Watson Professor Emeritus of Religion at Syracuse University and David R. Cook Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Villanova University. His most recent book is In Search of Radical Theology.