In Memory of Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was the most original and inspiring writer and philosopher of our time. In a series of essays that are at once self-contained and intricately linked, the author of this book explores the legacies of Derrida's thinking in the context of philosophy, language, globalisation, war, terrorism, justice, the democracy to come, poetry, literature, memory, mourning, the gift, friendship and dreams. He allows us to appreciate how much Derrida's work has altered the ways we read and think. Autobiography, children's literature, the Gothic and modernist fiction, for example, figure together with philosophy, queer studies, speech act theory and psychoanalysis. The writings of Horace Walpole, Herman Melville, E. M. Forster, Elizabeth Bowen, Joe Brainard and David McKee are put in play alongside Shakespeare. The book suggests that one of Derrida's most profound legacies has to do with the combination of responsibility and freedom his work inspires for both reading and writing. It offers an overview of Derrida's work while also tracing directions in which it might productively be read in the future.