Jacques Derridaโs revolutionary approach to phenomenology, psychoanalysis, structuralism, linguistics, and indeed the entire European tradition of philosophyโcalled deconstructionโchanged the face of criticism. It provoked a questioning of philosophy, literature, and the human sciences that these disciplines would have previously considered improper. Forty years after Of Grammatology first appeared in English, Derrida still ignites controversy, thanks in part to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivakโs careful translation, which attempted to capture the richness and complexity of the original.
This fortieth anniversary edition, where a mature Spivak retranslates with greater awareness of Derridaโs legacy, also includes a new afterword by her which supplements her influential original preface. Judith Butler has added an introduction. All references in the work have been updated. One of contemporary criticismโs most indispensable works, Of Grammatology is made even more accessible and usable by this new release.
Jacques Derrida (1930โ2004) taught at the รcole des Hautes รtudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and the University of California, Irvine. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor at Columbia University. Judith Butler is the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School.