Jacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, "perhaps
the world's most famous philosopher if not the only famous
philosopher." He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is
mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an
illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and
peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection
that honors those friendships in the wake of passing. Gathered here
are texts letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral
orations written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland
Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond
Jab\u00e8s, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel
Levinas, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie
Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servi\u00e8re. With his words,
Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the
absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is
acutely aware of the questions of tact, taste, and ethical
responsibility involved in speaking of the dead the risks of using
the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation,
personal vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. More than a
collection of memorial addresses, this volume sheds light not only
on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent French thinkers
of the past quarter century but also on some of the most important
themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death,"
time, memory, and friendship itself. "In his rapt attention to his
subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a
hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French
philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes
how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul
de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who
still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such
resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful
work." Steven Poole, Guardian "Strikingly simpa meditations on
friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy
and history." Publishers Weekly
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