Derrida and Autobiography

A reading of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and an investigation of theories of autobiography.

Robert Smith (Author)

9780521465816, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 June 1995

212 pages
21.5 x 14.1 x 1.4 cm, 0.28 kg

The work of Jacques Derrida can be seen to reinvent most theories. In this book Robert Smith offers both a reading of the philosophy of Derrida and an investigation of current theories of autobiography. Smith argues that for Derrida autobiography is not so much subjective self-revelation as relation to the other, not so much a general condition of thought as a general condition of writing - what Derrida calls the 'autobiography of the writing' - which mocks any self-centred finitude of living and dying. In this context, and using literary-critical, philosophical, and psychoanalytical sources, Smith thinks through Derrida's texts in a new, but distinctly Derridean, way, and finds new perspectives to analyse the work of classical writers including Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Freud, and de Man.

Part I. The Book of Esther: 1. Incipit
2. Pure reason, absolute knowledge, pure change
3. Suffering: 4. His life story
Part II. Clarifying Autobiography: 5. Worstward ho: some recent theories
6. Labyrinths
Part III. The Book of Zoë: 7. auto
8. bio
9. graphy.

Subject Areas: Literary theory [DSA]