Jacques Derrida | Biography

Few intellectuals have marked the domain of critical theory as Jacques Derrida has done; few, indeed, have generated such appreciation and such criticism. "Deconstruction," Derrida's reinscription of Heidegger's term Destruktion, is now a standard term used throughout literary and cultural studies. Beyond these disciplines, deconstruction has entered into discussions in areas as diverse as law, architecture, and on at least one occasion, accounting. And yet, in the study of philosophy Derrida has earned little acceptance in either the French or mainstream Anglo-American tradition. However, Derrida's writing is so central to everything that has come since 1967 that to fully understand critical theory one must gain some understanding of his work. This task is not an easy one, since Derrida's prominence is rivaled only by the challenging nature of his writing; his relentless interrogation of philosophy forces the reader to open up many new avenues of thought: the rigor his texts...
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