Reading And Responsibility: Deconstruction's Traces (the Frontiers Of Theory)
by Derek Attridge /
2010 / English / PDF
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What is the importance of deconstruction, and the writing of
Jacques Derrida in particular, for literary criticism today? Derek
Attridge argues that the challenge of Derrida's work for our
understanding of literature and its value has still not been fully
met, and in this book, which traces a close engagement with
Derrida's writing over two decades and reflects an interest in that
work going back a further two decades, shows how that work can
illuminate a variety of topics.Chapters include an overview of
deconstruction as a critical practice today, discussions of the
secret, postcolonialism, ethics, literary criticism, jargon,
fiction, and photography, and responses to the theoretical writing
of Emmanuel Levinas, Roland Barthes, and J. Hillis Miller. Also
included is a discussion of the recent reading of Derrida's
philosophy as 'radical atheism', and the book ends with a
conversation on deconstruction and place with the theorist and
critic Jean-Michel Rabaté.Running throughout is a concern with the
question of responsibility, as exemplified in Derrida's own
readings of literary and philosophical texts: responsibility to the
work being read, responsibility to the protocols of rational
argument, and responsibility to the reader.
What is the importance of deconstruction, and the writing of
Jacques Derrida in particular, for literary criticism today? Derek
Attridge argues that the challenge of Derrida's work for our
understanding of literature and its value has still not been fully
met, and in this book, which traces a close engagement with
Derrida's writing over two decades and reflects an interest in that
work going back a further two decades, shows how that work can
illuminate a variety of topics.Chapters include an overview of
deconstruction as a critical practice today, discussions of the
secret, postcolonialism, ethics, literary criticism, jargon,
fiction, and photography, and responses to the theoretical writing
of Emmanuel Levinas, Roland Barthes, and J. Hillis Miller. Also
included is a discussion of the recent reading of Derrida's
philosophy as 'radical atheism', and the book ends with a
conversation on deconstruction and place with the theorist and
critic Jean-Michel Rabaté.Running throughout is a concern with the
question of responsibility, as exemplified in Derrida's own
readings of literary and philosophical texts: responsibility to the
work being read, responsibility to the protocols of rational
argument, and responsibility to the reader.