Derrida and Our Animal Others: Derrida's Final Seminar, the Beast and the Sovereign [Hardcover]

Jacques Derrida's final seminars were devoted to animal life and political sovereigntythe connection being that animals slavishly adhere to the law while kings and gods tower above it and that this relationship reveals much about humanity in the West. David Farrell Krell offers a detailed account of these seminars, placing them in the context of Derrida's late work and his critique of Heidegger. Krell focuses his discussion on questions such as death, language, and animality. He concludes that Heidegger and Derrida share a commitment to finding new ways of speaking and thinking about human and animal life.

Reading Derrida's final seminar in light of Heidegger

David Farrell Krell is currently Brauer Visiting Professor of German Studies at Brown University and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. He writes fiction and is author of numerous scholarly books, includingContagion(IUP, 1998) andThe Tragic Absolute: German Idealism and the Languishing of God(IUP, 2008).

Derrida and Our Animal Others . . . appeals to a broad audience of both scholars and students of Derrida's and Heidegger's work, as well as more casual readers interested in a clearer understanding of Derrida's thinking on animality. Krell's style is, as always, fluid and eminently readable, sacrificing none of the complexity of Derrida's or Heidegger's thinking, while remaining clear and engaging throughout. His analysis is also quite provocative, raising challenges to Derrida's reading of Heidegger, as well as contributing significant insights into the 19291930 lectures and the role of apophantic discourse in Heidegger's thinking. . . . Derrida and Our Animal Others is an excellent and provocative commentary, leading the reader through the central issues of Derrida's work on the question of the animal and inspiring the desire for further exploration. I have no doubt that this text will prove an indispensable resource for readers of The Beast and the Slcu