By Jacques Derrida
Gathered listed here are texts—letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations—written after the deaths of famous figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de guy, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabès, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-François Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servière.
With his phrases, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to absolutely the area of expertise of every dating. In every one case, he's aware of the questions of tact, flavor, and moral accountability enthusiastic about conversing of the dead—the dangers of utilizing the get together for one's personal reasons, political calculation, own vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. greater than a set of memorial addresses, this quantity sheds gentle not just on Derrida's relation to a couple of the main in demand French thinkers of the earlier zone century but additionally on one of the most vital issues of Derrida's complete oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, reminiscence, and friendship itself.
"In his rapt realization to his topics' paintings and their impression upon him, the booklet additionally deals a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's personal lifestyles in French philosophical historical past. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes—how Lyotard led Derrida to start utilizing a word-processor; how Paul de guy talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. someone who nonetheless thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will locate such envious prejudice not able to outlive a examining of this pretty work."—Steven Poole, Guardian
"Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."—Publishers Weekly
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