Product Description

In 1993, Derrida opened a conference organized around the question 'Whither Marxism?’, and it is his plenary address that forms the basis of this book. Hotly debated then, a changing world and world politic have scarcely dented its relevance today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31101 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review

"Its importance within the Derridean canon cannot be overemphasized ... The text that scholars turn to ... to understand the politics of deconstruction." – Southern Humanities Review

"One of Derrida's best books." – New Statesman and Society

From the Back Cover

Specters of Marx

Jacques Derrida

translated by Peggy Kamuf

with an introduction by Bernd Magnus and Stephen Cullenberg

'One of Derrida's best books…More explicitly than before, he has taken politics and history as his themes.' New Statesman

'Always a man of the left, [Derrida] felt able to write this book only when Soviet communism had collapsed, as his espousal of Marx was then, he said, less likely to be misunderstood.' The Guardian

Prodigiously influential, Jacques Derrida gave rise to a comprehensive rethinking of the basic concepts and categories of Western philosophy in the latter part of the twentieth century. His writings have been central to our understanding of language, meaning, identity, ethics and values. In 1993 a conference was organised around the question, 'Whither Marxism?'. Derrida was invited to open the proceedings. His plenary address, 'Specters of Marx', delivered in two parts, forms the basis of this book. Hotly debated when it was first published, a rapidly changing world and world politic have scarcely dented the relevance of this book.

About the Author

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was born in Algeria. He drew on psychoanalysis, Marxist theory, and Heidegger's philosophy to become a central figure in intellectual life in the latter part of the twentieth century.