ABSTRACT
Why Derrida? In accordance with the ‘similar structure’ (p. ix) of each book in this series, Routledge Critical Thinkers, I must begin by trying to respond to this question – with luck in ways that will interest and even amuse you (since the question, I confess, is not one that I am able to take altogether seriously, for reasons that I hope will become clear). No doubt there will have been some minimal understanding already presupposed here: ‘Derrida’ is not the name of some new high-energy drink or a prospective location for the next Olympic Games. ‘Why Derrida?’: I have just put the question in quotation marks, but in effect it already was, from the beginning. Here, then, is my first ‘proper Derrida quote’. He says: ‘Be alert to these invisible quotation marks, even within a word’ (LO 76). ‘Why Derrida?’ How much understanding can or should be assumed in relation to this question?
