Derrida
Excellent...Norris displays a command of philosophy from Kant to the present...[and is] a major contemporary interpreter of deconstruction...Norris has succeeded admirably in presenting a careful, reliable, and very readable general introduction to the thought of Derrida. (Choice)Norris organizes his book around Derrida's writings on Plato, Hegel, Saussure, Rousseau, Kant, Austin, Freud, and Foucault. He shows how Derrida reads the philosophers not as voices in historical time but as writers whose texts interact both in their own historical time and in the vertical time frame of reason and the dictionary...Norris has done what not even Derrida has been able to do very well; explain Derrida. (Thomas D'EvelynChristian Science Monitor)Derrida should continue to be read. And whether one initially classifies Derrida's work as 'literature' or as 'philosophy' is less important than that he be appreciated as the sort of writer whose originality forces us to throw away old taxonomies and come up with new ones. Norris' thoughtful book will help people appreciate that originality. (Richard RortyNew Leader)A really fine account of Derrida's philosophical project...The prose is clear and jargon-free, unlike so many other books on Derrida...The book will be extremely useful to a wide range of readers. (David Hoy, University of California, Santa Cruz)Norris writes a study that is at once a general introduction and an original contribution to a debate among specialists...Norris's discussion of Derrida's political and ethical dimension, setting the record straight in the face of the most damaging case against Derrida, is perhaps the most important contribution made to the international debate surrounding poststructuralism in any of Norris's published works. (Gregory Ulmer, University of Florida)