The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida’s most sustained consideration of religion, explores questions first introduced in his book Given Time about the limits of the rational and responsible that one reaches in granting or accepting death, whether by sacrifice, murder, execution, or suicide. Derrida analyzes Czech philosopher Jan Patocka’s Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History and develops and compares his ideas to the works of Heidegger, Lévinas, and Kierkegaard. One of Derrida’s major works, The Gift of Death resonates with much of his earlier writing, and this highly anticipated second edition is greatly enhanced by David Wills’s updated translation.

This new edition also features the first-ever English translation of Derrida’s Literature in Secret. In it, Derrida continues his discussion of the sacrifice of Isaac, which leads to bracing meditations on secrecy, forgiveness, literature, and democracy. He also offers a reading of Kafka’s Letter to His Father and uses the story of the flood in Genesis as an embarkation point for a consideration of divine sovereignty.

CONTENTS:

Translator’s Preface to the 2007 Edition
 
The Gift of Death
 
One
Secrets of European Responsibility
Two
Beyond: Giving for the Taking, Teaching and Learning to Give, Death
Three
Whom to Give to (Knowing Not to Know)
Four
Tout autre est tout autre
 
 
Literature in Secret: An Impossible Filiation
 
One
The Test of Secrecy: For the One as for the Other
Two
Father, Son, and Literature
Three
More Than One
 
Notes

AUTHOR:

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was director of studies at the école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books published by the University of Chicago Press.