For Derrida [Paperback]

This bookthe culmination of forty years of friendship between J. Hillis Miller and Jacques Derrida, during which Miller also closely followed all Derridas writings and seminarsis for Derrida in two senses. It is for him, dedicated to his memory. The chapters also speak, in acts of reading, as advocates for Derridas work. They focus especially on Derridas late work, including passages from the last, as yet unpublished, seminars. The chapters are partial to Derrida, on his side, taking his part, gratefully submitting themselves to the demand made by Derridas writings to be readslowly, carefully, faithfully, with close attention to semantic detail.

The chapters do not progress forward to tell a sequential story. They are, rather, a series of perspectives on the heterogeneity of Derridas work, or forays into that heterogeneity.

The chief goal has been, to borrow a phrase from Wallace Stevens, plainly to propound what Derrida says. The book aims, above all, to render Derridas writings justice. It should be remembered, however, that, according to Derrida himself, every rendering of justice is also a transformative interpretation. A book like this one is not a substitute for reading Derrida for oneself. It is to be hoped that it will encourage readers to do just that.

Hillis Miller's For Derrida brilliantly explores the labyrinth of
Derrida's late phase and what is widely interpreted as deconstruction's
so-called 'turn' toward ethics and religion. Miller recaptures the dark
dissonance of key and late terms for the reader-destinnerance, the
resistance of 'community,' the auto-immunitary, performativity, absolute
mourning-then mobilizes them against interpretive doxa many have fallen
into after Derrida's death, as 'deconstruction' appears to have entered its
own auto-immunitary phase (as Derrida anticipated). For Derrida is, among
other things, a corrective or counter-strike 'for Derrida,' a gift and
salut, attlã'