Introduction

Jacques Derrida died on 8 October 2004. Controversies surrounded him while he was alive and dogged him even after his death. An obituary of Derrida by Jonathan Kandell (2004) in the New York Times entitled ‘Jacques Derrida, Abstruse Theorist, Dies at 74’ provoked an unprecedented response from academia across the United States. If controversies have a way of signifying something besides arguments and counter-arguments, they certainly underscore the importance of the person about whom they are made.