Recommendations

Books Like De la grammatologie by Jacques Derrida

Works that find the undecidable at the heart of the text

Derrida shows that the supplement Rousseau tries to exclude (writing, culture, the dangerous) is the condition of possibility of the original (speech, nature, the proper). These works share that same deconstructive move: the margin is not marginal, the supplement is not supplementary.

  1. L'Écriture et la différence cover
    1

    L'Écriture et la différence

    by Jacques Derrida

    The companion volume of 1967 — essays on Freud, Foucault, Levinas, and Bataille; more accessible than De la grammatologie; the best entry into Derrida's range

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  2. Marges de la philosophie cover
    2

    Marges de la philosophie

    by Jacques Derrida

    Margins of Philosophy — includes 'Différance,' the central Derrida essay; the most systematic statement of the deconstructive program; read after De la grammatologie

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  3. La Voix et le phénomène cover
    3

    La Voix et le phénomène

    by Jacques Derrida

    Speech and Phenomena — the 1967 reading of Husserl; shorter and more technically rigorous; the third of the founding deconstructive texts alongside De la grammatologie

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  4. Surveiller et punir cover
    4

    Surveiller et punir

    by Michel Foucault

    The genealogical counterpart — Foucault analyzing institutional power/knowledge while Derrida analyzes the structures of Western philosophy; the two central post-structuralist projects in dialogue

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  5. Of Grammatology cover
    5

    Of Grammatology

    by Jacques Derrida

    The Gayatri Spivak English translation — Spivak's preface is one of the best introductions to Derrida available; essential for reading De la grammatologie in English

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  6. 6

    La Carte postale

    by Jacques Derrida

    The Post Card — the late playful Derrida; love letters, Freud, and Socrates; the most accessible and most personal Derrida; read after the founding texts

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  7. Tristes Tropiques cover
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    Tristes Tropiques

    by Claude Lévi-Strauss

    Lévi-Strauss's anthropological memoir — Derrida's critique of Lévi-Strauss's 'Writing Lesson' chapter is one of the central arguments in De la grammatologie; reading both together is essential

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  8. Mémoires d'aveugle cover
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    Mémoires d'aveugle

    by Jacques Derrida

    Memoirs of the Blind — Derrida's meditation on drawing and blindness; the most visually beautiful Derrida text; the late deconstructive engagement with art

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