Jacques Derrida′s philosophy of deconstruction has been a key reference in the social sciences for more than 25 years. This work, in four volumes, is a comprehensive, thematically organized review of the key secondary literature on Derrida′s writing. It provides a systematic overview of the core conceptual vocabulary informing Deconstruction, identifying published works that most clearly and significantly discuss Derrida′s thought.
Volume One reviews the critique of metaphysics - the discussion of identity and difference that prefigures post-structuralism and post-modernism - as well as the historical context of Deconstruction: notably Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, and Heidegger.
In Volume Two the focus is on the logic of Deconstruction, the key themes of writing and iterability; knowledge and representation; dialogue and hermeneutics; as well as Derrida′s work on science and technology.
As the work of Deconstruction has questioned the idea of academic "disciplines", Volume Three examines the impact of this inquiry in work on language, metaphor, and translation; aesthetics; architecture; literature; subjectivity and psychoanalysis.
Volume Four further expands this inquiry in a review of Derrida′s work on the Other, with specific discussion of ethics; political questions about the relation of power, language and textuality; questions of democracy, justice, and legality; the relation of Deconstruction to feminism and sexual difference; as well as the much-discussed literature on Derrida′s reading of Marx.
Together these four volumes represent an essential reference for researchers and students in social theory, cultural studies, philosophy, literature and linguistics.
