Book Description

"The first full-length study of Jacques Derrida's criticism based upon the works of James Joyce. It is a brilliantly explicated study, clearly written, and eminently sensible. It will be the last word on the subject for years to come."--Zack Bowen, University of Miami This book analyzes Derrida's uses of Joyce within his own work and demonstrates how Joyce's writings operate deconstructively. The complex and tantalizing relationship between the two men has intrigued Joyceans and Derrideans alike. Alan Roughley here offers remarkable readings of both Joyce and Derrida texts, in particular of Finnegans Wake and Glas. Exploring how Joyce's ghost haunts many of Derrida's major writings, Roughley concentrates on two areas: how Derrida reads Joyce and sees his work as deconstructive and how English-speaking Joyceans have made use of Derrida's theories. Long overdue, this is the first major comprehensive study of the relationship between Joyce and Derrida. It demonstrates specific ways in which the major works of one of the century's most important literary writers are some of the most powerful forces in the work of the century's most complex and controversial theorist. It will appeal to Joyceans of all persuasions, including anti-Derrideans, and to anyone with an interest in philosophy and contemporary theory. Alan Roughley is a research fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom. He is the author of James Joyce and Critical Theory: An Introduction and Infernal Cinders: An Assemblage of Contemporary Writings, and the founding co-editor of Hypermedia Joyce, an international electronic journal of Joyce studies.