Reading Derrida's Of Grammatology

by Sean Gaston (Editor), Ian MacLachlan (Editor)

With new readings from nineteen internationally renowned scholars, Reading Derrida's Of Grammatology is a significant reassessment and informed discussion of Jacques Derrida's landmark 1967 text.

Since its original publication, Of Grammatology has had a profound impact on philosophy, literary theory and the Humanities in general. Through a series of close readings of selected passages by writers from a wide range of disciplines, this collection aims to discover anew this important work and its continuing influence. The book includes new readings by:

- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
- J. Hillis Miller
- Jean-Luc Nancy
- Derek Attridge
- Geoffrey Bennington
- Nicholas Royle

Reading Derrida's Of Grammatology is an essential book for anyone interested in Derrida's work, from readers new to the book to experienced researchers in philosophy, literature and the many other disciplines that Of Grammatology has transformed over the last forty years.

Genres: Philosophy

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2011

Reviews

[Derek Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hillis Miller and Attridge essays are very helpful, and reason enough to get the text.

Even Spivak's introduction is fun.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A companion and to some extent a guide to 'Of Grammatology'.
It's a mixed bag.

I think overall this book is well worth reading, for anyone who is quite interested in JD's work - and particularly OG, obviously - but painfully conscious of its difficulty. Quite a few of the short pieces here - they're almost all between one and half a dozen pages long - I found genuinely helpful in terms of getting to grips with the OG - with new angles, new clarifications, sometimes with confirmation that my tentative and doubtful sense of what he's on about were actually somewhere moderately close to the mark. Many of the writers touch on how daunting or challenging they have found the work and still do, which is encouraging too.

Among those I found helpful and interesting here, in various ways, were J. Hillis Miller, Derek Attridge, Paul Davies, Christopher Johnson, Sean Gaston at times, Geoffrey Bennington, and Timothy Clark, and maybe a couple more. I won't name the ones I thought were awful.

Probably worth pointing out that to get much out of this book it will help a lot if you have some familiarity with OG. I think it would be a really helpful companion to a reading, or even more so to a re-reading.

[Mike Mena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some essays were helpful, some were not. Very hit or miss. I don't regret using this guide but there are better ones like 'Derrida's of grammatology' by Bradley.