In this book Martin McQuillan brings Derrida's writing into the immediate vicinity of geo-politics today, from the Kosovan conflict to the war in Iraq. The chapters in this book follow both Derrida's writing since Specters of Marx and the present political scene through the former Yogoslavia and Afghanistan to Palestine and Baghdad. His 'textual activism' is as impatient with the universal gestures of philosophy as it is with the complacency and reductionism of policy-makers and activists alike. This work records a response to the war on thinking that has marked western discourse since 9/11.
Introduction: Deconstruction after 9/11 Chapter 1: Wars and Rumours of Wars Chapter 2: The Eternal Battle for the Domination of the World, or, Forget Kosovo Chapter 3: Tele-Techno-Theology Chapter 4: Extraordinary Rendition: Derrida and Vietnam Chapter 5: Derrida and Policy: is deconstruction really a social science? Chapter 6: Spectres of Poujade: Naomi Klein and the New International Chapter 7: Promises, Promises (This is also why…) Chapter 8: Hungary in Deconstruction Chapter 9: Enosis, or, ‘The Sovereignty of Cyprus’ Chapter 10: ‘The Last Jewish Intellectual’: Edward Said and the Deconstruction of Palestine Epilogue: Philosophy and War
Biography
Martin McQuillan is Professor of Cultural Theory and Analysis at the University of Leeds. His recent publications include The Politics of Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the Other of Philosophy (2007) and Deconstruction Reading Politics (2008).
