ABSTRACT

One of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth-century, Jacques Derrida’s ideas on deconstruction have had a lasting impact on philosophy, literature and cultural studies.





Jacques Derrida: Basic Writings is the first anthology to present his most important philosophical writings and is an indispensable resource for all students and readers of his work. Barry Stocker’s clear and helpful introductions set each reading in context, making the volume an ideal companion for those coming to Derrida’s writings for the first time. The selections themselves range from his most infamous works including Speech and Phenomena and Writing and Difference to lesser known discussion on aesthetics, ethics and politics.

chapter |24 pages

Editor’s Introduction

part I|58 pages

Metaphysics

chapter 1|29 pages

‘Exergue’ and ‘the End of the Book and the Beginning of Writing’

Of Grammatology (Derrida 1997a [First Published 1967])

chapter 2|27 pages

‘The Pharmakon’

Dissemination (Derrida 2004 [First Published 1972])

part II|52 pages

Language and meaning

chapter 3|20 pages

‘Meaning as Soliloquy’

Speech and Phenomena (Derrida 1973 [First Published 1967])

chapter 4|30 pages

‘Signature Event Context’

Margins of Philosophy (Derrida 1982 [First Published 1972])

part III|46 pages

Consciousness

chapter 5|20 pages

‘The Supplement of Origin’

Speech and Phenomena (Derrida 1973 [First Published 1967])

chapter 6|24 pages

‘Form and Meaning: A Note on the Phenomenology of Language’

Margins of Philosophy (Derrida 1982 [First Published 1972])

part IV|54 pages

Epistemology

chapter 7|27 pages

‘Introduction to the Origin of Geometry’

Edmund Husserl’s Origin of Geometry: An Introduction (Derrida 1989 [First Published 1961])

chapter 8|25 pages

‘Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’

Writing and Difference (Derrida 1978) [First Published 1967]

part V|61 pages

Ethics

chapter 9|28 pages

‘Hostipitality’

chapter 10|31 pages

‘Oligarchies: Naming, Enumerating, Counting’

Politics of Friendship (Derrida 1997b [First Published 1994])

part VI|56 pages

Politics

chapter 11|25 pages

‘Onto-Theology of National-Humanism (Prolegomena to a Hypothesis)’

Originally Published in 1992 in Oxford Literary Review 14: 1–23

chapter 12|29 pages

‘The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration’ (1986)

For Nelson Mandela (Derrida 1987c)

part VII|69 pages

Literature and aesthetics

chapter 13|44 pages

Force and Signification’ (1963)

Writing and Difference (Derrida 1978 [First Published 1967])

chapter 14|23 pages

Parergon I ‘Lemmata’

The Truth in Painting (Derrida 1987b [First Published 1978])