Heidegger and Derrida

"This book is a major contribution towards the fundamental renewal of our thinking about time, and convincingly shows just how central that project continued to be for Heidegger and just how far it informs deconstruction"--Radical Philosophy "An impressive book. Rapaport interweaves his own reading of Heidegger into his understanding of what Derrida makes of Heidegger. This results in not only a helpful presentation of Heidegger but also a real contribution to the understanding of the Derridean problematic."--Hugh J. Silverman, SUNY, Stony Brook. "Rapaport manages to place Derrida in the context of his sources without diminishing the originality or value of Derrida's writings. His style is at all times engaging, careful, and clear."--Gregory L. Ulmer, University of Florida. As the spell of Jacques Derrida grows stronger, with more translations and analyses appearing every season, it is possible--and necessary--to determine what in his work is truly new and what continues philosophical and literary traditions. Although Martin Heidegger ahs been mentioned before as a precursor of deconstruction, Herman Rapaport is the first to develop the connections between the writings of the German philosopher and Derrida. Heidegger and Derrida discusses the French philosopher's adoption of certain Heideggerean themes and his extension or overturning of them. But Rapaport does more than show how deconstruction builds on the philosophical foundations laid by Heidegger (and also by Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud). In the most comprehensive study of Derrida's works to date, he tackles the problem of writing an intellectual history about a figure who has put into question the possibility of such a construction and acknowledges Derrida's concerns with Jewish history in relation to Western thought. Herman Rapaport, an associate professor of comparative literature and English at the University of Iowa, is the author of Milton and the Postmodern (1983), also published by the University of Nebraska Press.