The Politics of Deconstruction - Jacques Derrida and the Other of Philosophy (Paperback)

The work of Jacques Derrida has been of singular importance in the development of contemporary political theory and political philosophy, being a major influence and inspiration to Slavoj Zizek, Richard Rorty, Ernesto Laclau, Judith Butler and many more contemporary thinkers. This text brings together a truly first class line up of Derrida scholars who are developing a deconstructive approach to politics. Deconstruction is an immanent critique, looking at the internal logic of any given text or discourse, revealing how particular concepts are established as authoritative principles through a variety of textual and rhetorical devices. A deconstructive reading would then expose how an apparently authoritative concept, when looked at closely, is contradictory and contingent on a host of external relations - with the effect of undermining the force of the text or discourse from which the concept originates. Such a critical method has proved revolutionary in much political analysis, particularly ideology critique.