The Purest of Bastards: Works of Mourning, Art, and Affirmation in the Thought of Jacques Derrida (American and European Philosophy) [Paperback]

David Farrell Krell (Author)

Book Description

Series: American and European Philosophy | Publication Date: August 1, 2000

To counter the view of Derrida's thought as basically destructive, the author invites the reader to understand how Derrida's philosophy maybe seen as affirmative. The book explores what mourning means in Derrida's writing and how the labours of mourning and affirmation are mediated by works of art.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an expertly informed analysis, explanation, defense, and affirmation of Derrida's work. The focus on mourning is extremely suggestive and provocative really thought-provoking! The book will be read with delight by specialists in the field and will be of real value also to graduate students those who wish to engage the formative issues of the tradition. --David B. Allison, SUNY, Stony Brook

This book makes an important contribution to scholarship on the thought of Jacques Derrida. Krell presents a careful reading of selected texts representing Derrida's encounters with phenomenology, psychoanalysis, literature, and art.... [Krell] eschews easy answers to critical questions and often ends discussions with questions for the reader to ponder. An indispensable book for anyone studying Derrida. --D. M. Maier, Choice

A study that, while introductory, nevertheless engages effectively with the texts it discusses and develops analyses of them that are evocative and worthy of further development. --Kir Kuiken, Philosophy in Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

David Farrell Krell is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University and the author of many books, including Intimations of Mortality: Time, Truth, and Finitude in Heidegger's Thinking of Being (Penn State, 1986), Infectious Nietzsche (Indiana, 1996) and Contagion: Sexuality, Disease, and Death in German Idealism and Romanticism (Indiana, 1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (Txt) (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271019921
• ISBN-13: 978-0271019925
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,554,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trying to Match Seriousness, July 19, 2000

By 

Bruce P. Barten - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Purest of Bastards: Works of Mourning, Art, and Affirmation in the Thought of Jacques Derrida (American and European Philosophy) (Paperback)

If there is any question of whether Krell will be able to forget Heidegger in the midst of the subjects covered in this book, page 138 clearly states, "And, finally, no, we will never be able to be rid of Heidegger's metabolic yet unbudgeable corpse." The most unusual reminder in the great number of items mentioned in this book, related by Krell in reflecting on the family as a guiding thread in a work by Derrida was a Hungarian gangster, spelled Kaiser Sose in this book, who appeared in a movie called "The Usual Suspects" which I recently saw with a family member on a Sunday afternoon. However appropriate that may have been, or crippled, as the case may be, and however dubious any claims of immunity which were made in the movie seemed to me, the sentence which brought this to mind seems especially puzzling. "In the parade of industrious fathers and sons, productive husbands and wives, pious and pure brothers and sisters, and invisible but efficient mothers, in the procession of all the loves and execrations of the family romance, Genet limps along like Kaiser Sose behind a Hegel on the march." (p. 150) This consideration of "love in the family, or in whatever is left of families," (p. 151) is in the chapter before the one devoted to Augustine's Confessions.