Introducing Derrida

Jacques Derrida is one of the most influential figures in contemporary philosophy. Yet, Derrida has undermined the accepted rules of philosophy, rejected its methods and concepts, disrupted its boundaries and "contaminated" philosophy with other kinds of writings. Derrida's approach is an initially puzzling array of oblique, sliding and yet rigorous tactics for destabilising texts, meanings and identities. "Deconstructions" as these strategies have been called, has been reviled as a politically pernicious nihilism and celebrated as a liberatory politics of choice and difference. This work describes the key strategies of Derrida's writing, explains their controversial effects in philosophy, and shows how Derrida has put them to work in literature, art, architecture and politics. The book offers a starting point for an intellectual adventure that threatens to disturb some of the most comfortable habits of contemporary thought.