In Memory of Jacques Derrida is a remarkable account of one of the greatest thinkers of our time. We are still coming to terms with the astonishing richness of Derrida's writings, as well as his untimely death in 2004. It may be said that we are all ""in memory of Derrida,"" regardless of whether or not we have read him.
The essays in Nicholas Royle's book offer a series of lucid and incisive readings of Derrida's work, as well as a more personal elegiac tribute. Derrida constantly engaged with the strange place of ""death"" in thinking, writing, and perception, and he exhibited a new kind of attentiveness to the importance and paradox of mourning in love and friendship. He also tackled questions of legacy, inheritance, the ghost, and the gift and the nature of memory, remembering and forgetting. His work on mourning (what is mourning? when does it begin or end?) frequently references Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which he believes mourning to be ""the true subject"" of the play. Royle's commemorative volume also puts Shakespeare at the center of thinking about Derrida's work. Adopting an autobiographical as well as critical approach, he launches a poignant testament to the enigma of Derrida as writer, teacher, and friend and advances a fascinating theory as to the thinker's work remains so crucial to understanding the contemporary world.
