Jacques Derrida

Abstract

Jacques Derrida was born of Sephardic Jewish parents in EI-Biar, near Algiers, in 1930. The name of Jacques Derrida is inextricably linked to one word, deconstruction, and a analysis of how that word arises in his writings is perhaps the best way to approach them. The noun ‘deconstruction’ and the verb ‘deconstruire’ were already in use as technical terms by French grammarians when Derrida began to use them. The grammarians wished to disclose the laws of sentence construction, to find out how sentences work in different circumstances. The political significance of Derrida’s writing is often hotly debated, and no wonder, since his rethinking of the categories of thought pose problems for all right and left orthodoxies. During the period 1967–84 he was maitre-assistant in philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure, although he also made extended visits to American universities, particularly Johns Hopkins and Yale.