CriticaLink | Spivak: Echo | Terms

Derrida, Jacques

Jacques Derrida was born in Algeria in 1930 and moved to France in 1959. He established his reputation in the mid-sixties with a series of essays and presentations in which he elaborated his critique of structuralism and the operations of différance. Drawing heavily upon Nietzsche and Heidegger, his philosophical work is devoted to an investigation of Western metaphysics, which he pursues in writings that combine traditional philosophical inquiry with literary criticism and a poetic virtuosity. His Of Grammatology, translated with an extended introduction by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in 1976, provides an introduction to the approach Derrida calls deconstruction. HIs other major publications in English translation include Writing and Difference (1978), Spurs: Nietzsche's Styles (1979)., Dissemination (1981), Margins of Philosophy (1982), The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond (1987), Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question (1989), and Specters of Marx (1994).