Introduction

Derrida had relatively little to say about translation and produced very few published translations in his lifetime. However, in other respects he was an incessant translator, frequently pausing in his teaching and writing to ask how something might be translated or to call attention to its untranslatability. Examining this translation reflex and putting it into dialogue with key concepts from Derrida’s later oeuvre, notably those that turn around inheriting and mourning, offers exciting avenues for exploring Derrida’s relevance to Translation Studies. It also enriches Derrida scholarship more broadly by calling attention to the multilingual nature of deconstruction and exploring the role played by translating in philosophy and literary criticism.