The politics of deconstruction : Jacques Derrida and the other of philosophy

The work of Jacques Derrida has been of singular importance in the development of contemporary political theory and political philosophy, being a major influence and inspiration to Slavoj Zizek, Richard Rorty, Ernesto Laclau, Judith Butler and many more contemporary thinkers.

This text brings together a truly first class line up of Derrida scholars who are developing a deconstructive approach to politics.Deconstruction is an immanent critique, looking at the internal logic of any given text or discourse, revealing how particular concepts are established as authoritative principles through a variety of textual and rhetorical devices.

A deconstructive reading would then expose how an apparently authoritative concept, when looked at closely, is contradictory and contingent on a host of external relations - with the effect of undermining the force of the text or discourse from which the concept originates.

Such a critical method has proved revolutionary in much political analysis, particularly ideology critique.