A conviction underlying all these 16 essays is that philosophy defines itself in part by a repression (or at least an avoidance) of the issue of reading. Reading, in the sense these pieces elaborate more or less obliquely, is an event that philosophy as such cannot quite register. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, this does not mean that these essays engage in a 'literary' approach to philosophical texts. They all in fact endeavour to present arguments, often of a recognisably philosophical kind, in favour of an essentially non-philosophical understanding of reading. Reading, in the...
A conviction underlying all these 16 essays is that philosophy defines itself in part by a repression (or at least an avoidance) of the issue of readi...
The 15 essays gathered in this volume attempt to ask questions about reading, and more especially about the minimal preliminary gesture of opening a book in order to read. What makes reading possible and impossible, and how are that possibility and impossibility figured in the texts we read? The concern here is not with 'how to read', nor with the 'fate of reading', but with a much more modest, but perhaps also more nagging, question: what does reading demand if it is to be reading? What is reading, reading itself? One constant thread here is this: reading entails the unreadable. The...
The 15 essays gathered in this volume attempt to ask questions about reading, and more especially about the minimal preliminary gesture of opening a b...
A theoretical and deconstructive analysis of the function of maxims, generalizations and other law-like statements in eighteenth-century French writing.
A theoretical and deconstructive analysis of the function of maxims, generalizations and other law-like statements in eighteenth-century French writin...
Lyotard has been associated primarily in the English-speaking world with the 'postmodern debate', but his work is of a breadth and importance beyond what this would suggest. This book, the first general introduction to Lyotard's work to appear in any language, presents the arguments which mark the crucial moments of a complex career, taking as its guiding thread Lyotard's preoccupation with the event (perhaps the major concern of recent French thought) through his reflections on desire, production, justice and language. Lyotard's fundamental drive to account for the event takes his work...
Lyotard has been associated primarily in the English-speaking world with the 'postmodern debate', but his work is of a breadth and importance beyond w...
When he died in 2004, Jacques Derrida left behind a vast legacy of unpublished material, much of it in the form of written lectures. With "The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume 1," the University of Chicago Press inaugurates an ambitious series, edited by Geoffrey Bennington and Peggy Kamuf, translating these important works into English.
"The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume 1" launches the series with Derrida s exploration of the persistent association of bestiality or animality with sovereignty. In this seminar from 2001 2002, Derrida continues his deconstruction of the traditional...
When he died in 2004, Jacques Derrida left behind a vast legacy of unpublished material, much of it in the form of written lectures. With "The Beas...
Frontier: the border between two countries; the limits of civilization; the bounds of established knowledge; a new field of activity. At a time when all borders, boundaries, margins, and limits are being--often violently--challenged, erased, or reinforced, we must rethink the concept of frontier itself. But is there even such a concept? Through an original and imaginative reading of Kant, Geoffrey Bennington casts doubt upon the conceptual coherence of borders. The frontier is the very element of Kant's thought yet the permanent frustration of his conceptuality. Bennington brings out the...
Frontier: the border between two countries; the limits of civilization; the bounds of established knowledge; a new field of activity. At a time when a...
Frontier: the border between two countries; the limits of civilization; the bounds of established knowledge; a new field of activity. At a time when all borders, boundaries, margins, and limits are being--often violently--challenged, erased, or reinforced, we must rethink the concept of frontier itself. But is there even such a concept? Through an original and imaginative reading of Kant, Geoffrey Bennington casts doubt upon the conceptual coherence of borders. The frontier is the very element of Kant's thought yet the permanent frustration of his conceptuality. Bennington brings out the...
Frontier: the border between two countries; the limits of civilization; the bounds of established knowledge; a new field of activity. At a time when a...
Following on from The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I, this book extends Jacques Derrida's exploration of the connections between animality and sovereignty. In this second year of the seminar, originally presented in 2002-2003 as the last course he would give before his death, Derrida focuses on two markedly different texts: Heidegger's 1929-1930 course The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. As he moves back and forth between the two works, Derrida pursuesthe relations between solitude, insularity, world, violence, boredom and death...
Following on from The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I, this book extends Jacques Derrida's exploration of the connections between animality a...
