Psyche - (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) by Jacques Derrida (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Psyche: Inventions of the Other is the first publication in English of the twenty-eight essay collection Jacques Derrida published in two volumes in 1998 and 2003. Advancing his reflection on many issues, such as sexual difference, architecture, negative theology, politics, war, nationalism, and religion, Volume II also carries on Derrida's engagement with a number of key thinkers and writers: De Certeau, Heidegger, Kant, Lacoue-Labarthe, Mandela, Rosenszweig, and Shakespeare, among others. Included in this volume are new or revised translations of seminal essays (for example, "Geschlecht I: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference," "Geschlecht II: Heidegger's Hand," "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," and "Interpretations at War: Kant, the Jew, the German").

Review Quotes

"There is no better place to understand the astonishing scope, inventiveness, brilliance, and coherence of Derridean deconstruction than this magnificent collection. To reverse Plato's famous dictum identifying the body as but the sign or sepulcher of the soul, Psyche is today the most living sign of Derrida's singular and indispensable body of work." --Michael Naas, DePaul University

"This monumental collection of essays shows Derrida at his brilliant best, across a vast and diverse range of topics, texts, authors and manners. From the hugely important essays around concepts such as invention, silence, translation or metaphor, on Heidegger, Ponge, Levinas, Flaubert, Benjamin, Freud or Barthes, through the densely beautiful and only apparently more occasional pieces on de Certeau or Laporte, to the important political interventions on racism, apartheid or nuclear deterrence, Psyche is among the richest and most diverse of all Derrida's books, and a testimony to the extraordinary depth and vigor of deconstructive thought." --Geoffrey Bennington, Emory University

About the Author

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Among the most recent of his many books to have been translated into English are Paper Machine (2005), On Touching--Jean-Luc Nancy (2005), Rogues (2005), Eyes of the University (2004), For What Tomorrow... with Elisabeth Roudinesco (2004), Counterpath with Catherine Malabou (2004), Negotiations (2002), Who's Afraid of Philosophy? (2002), and Without Alibi (2002). All of these have been published by Stanford University Press.