ISBN:
9781501392641
Language:
Undetermined
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource
Edition:
1st ed
Year of publication:
2022
Series Statement:
Comparative Jewish Literatures
Keywords:
Jacques Derrida
;
Literary studies
;
Philosophy 20th century
Abstract:
In this first ever monograph on Jacques Derrida's 'Toledo confession' - where he portrayed himself as 'sort of a Marrano of the French Catholic culture' - Agata Bielik-Robson shows Derrida's marranismo to be a literary experiment of auto-fiction. She looks at all possible aspects of Derrida's Marrano identification in order to demonstrate that it ultimately constitutes a trope of non-identitarian evasion that permeates all his works: just as Marranos cannot be characterized as either Jewish or Christian, so is Derrida's 'universal Marranism' an invitation to think philosophically, politically and - last but not least - metaphysically without rigid categories of identity and belonging. By concentrating on Derrida's deliberate choice of marranismo, Bielik-Robson shows that it penetrates deep into the very core of his late thinking, constantly drawing on the literary works of Kafka, Celan, Joyce, Cixous and Valéry, and throws a new light on his early works, most of all: Of Grammatology, Dissemination and 'Différance'. She also offers a completely new interpretation of many of Derrida's works only seemingly non-related to the Marrano issue, like Glas, Given Time: Counterfeit Money, Death Penalty Seminar, and Specters of Marx. In these new readings, this book demonstrates that the Marrano Derrida is not a marginal auto-biographical figure overshadowed by Derrida the Philosopher: it is one and the same thinker who discovered marranismo as a literary trope of openness, offering up a new genre of philosophical story-telling which centers around Derrida's Marrano 'auto-fable'
Description / Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Marrano Uncanny - The Last and the First of Jews --1. Betray, Betray Again, Betray Better: Marrano Theology of Survival --2. Secret Followers of the Hiding God: Marrano A-Theism --3. The Nameless Still Life: Marrano Metaphysics of Non-Presence --4. Two Serious Marranos: Derrida and Cixous (with Constant Reference to Poldy Bloom) --5. Ana-Community: Marrano 'Living Together' --Bibliography
DOI:
10.5040/9781501392641
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