THE MAIN WORK OF DECONSTRUCTION - PRESENTATION-COPY

DERRIDA, JACQUES.

De la grammatologie.

(Paris), Minuet, 1967. 8vo. Original wrappers. A bit of tanning and soiling to wrappers and usual wear to spine. Internally fine and clean, with pencil notes and underlinings by Gardair. 445, (3) pp.

First edition (20 Septembre, 1967, numéro 630) - SIGNED PRESENTATION-COPY FOR JEAN-MICHEL GARDAIR - of Derrida's seminal main work, the foundational text for deconstructive criticism.

1967 marks a turning point in the history of modern philosophy, constituting the birth of "Deconstruction". In this one year, Derrida publishes all of his three break-through books, "De la grammatologie", "L'écriture et la difference" and "La Voix et le phenomene", profoundly altering the course of modern thought. Although all three books are responsible for the introduction of Deconstruction, it is primarily "De la Grammatologie", Derrida's magnum opus, that has come to be associated with this groundbreaking concept.

Jean-Michel Gardair (1942-2013) was a highly esteemed professor at the Sorbonne and a famous author and translator from Italian into French, who also wrote the prefaces for many of the great classics that appeared at Minuet (where Derrida also published his main works). He is responsible for enriching French Italianism with an original presence, both through his own novels and his critical works, through his numerous translations, and through his highly esteemed prefaces.

"Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960's, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in "De la grammatologie" sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of their disciplines that had previously been considered improper. Thirty years later, the immense influence of Derrida's work is still igniting controversy..." (Review, Spivak's translation of Derrida's "Of Grammatology", 1997).

Derrida's concern is to bring to light the binary schema that is hidden in all kinds of texts and ideas of culture. In the present text Derrida brilliantly reveals some of the principles of deconstruction, not through theoretical explication, but, rather, by demonstration, showing that the arguments promulgated by their subject-matter exceed and contradict the oppositional parameters in which they are situated. Put into other words, deconstruction seeks to expose, and then to subvert, the various binary oppositions that undergird our dominant ways of thinking.

The ideas that Derrida here present have had an enormous impact on a number of the human sciences, including psychology, literary theory, cultural studies, linguistics, feminism, sociology and anthropology. Due to this work, a whole new world of problematic suppression and marginalisation has become apparent, making "De la grammatologie" one of the most important philosophical works of the later part of the 20th century.

"One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy". (J. Hillis Miller, Yale University).

Order-nr.: 50993