ABSTRACT
The Gift of Death is Derrida’s most sustained occupation with Kierkegaard, and includes a detailed reading of some passages in Fear and Trembling (1843). The second important text is Derrida’s discussion with Levinas in “Violence and Metaphysics” from 1964 (published in Writing and Difference in 1967) on how to understand Kierkegaard’s subjectivity. The other references are scattered in footnotes, margins, and passages where Kierkegaard plays a minor role. After the first section on Derrida, Kierkegaard, and Levinas, my analysis will therefore focus on questions raised by The Gift of Death, which then gives the textual basis for discussing further connections and some basic differences between Kierkegaard and Derrida concerning the questions of secrecy, gift, and responsibility, alterity and subjectivity, the concept of God, the madness of decision, the relation to Hegel, and, finally, hospitality and forgiveness.
