![]() ![]() When the philosopher Jacques Derrida passed in 2004, the New York Times published an obituary that characterized him as an “abstruse theorist” and mischaracterized Derrida’s signature intellectual contribution – the interpretive method known as “deconstruction” – as asserting that “all writing was full of confusion and contradiction,” an assessment that, as a group of academics including Derrida’s foremost interlocutor Gayatri Chakrovarty Spivak noted in a written response, was “as mean-spirited as it uninformed.” Such conservative appropriations serve to obfuscate rather than illuminate the real significance of the person’s work. The passing of intellectual giants inevitably prompts a collective stocktaking of their influence and importance – but such assessments also act as occasions to weaponize them in the service of current culture wars, especially by the right-wing. This piece is a part of our ongoing series, entitled “ Rethinking the Revolutionary Canon.” By Asheesh Kapur Siddique ![]()
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