Product Description

In this work, Jacques Derrida guides the reader through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology - all occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. The archival concept has played a pivotal role in numerous critical debates - a place of origin, yet of perpetuity, a place of stasis and order, yet of discovery, the notion of archive houses a complex of diverse, and often disparate, meanings. As a depository of civic record and social history whose very name derives from the Greek word for town hall, the archive would seem to be a public entity, yet it is stocked with the personal, even intimate, artifacts of private lives. This inherent tension between public and private inaugurates, argues Derrida, an inquiry into the human impulse to preserve, through technology as well as tradition, both a historical and a psychic past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20636 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

Archive fever Derrida
A must read for anyone interested in modern day polemics in art and philosophy. A heavy read but thoroughly worth the effort if you enjoy deep ideas and would like to know more about the thinking behind the recent interest in archiving that has been evident in Fine Art exhibits.