The Work of Mourning Edited by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. Translated by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas

Gathered in this book are texts--letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations--written by the world's most famous philosopher after the deaths of some of his best-known colleagues and contemporaries: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean- François Lyotard among them. With his words, Derrida bears witness to the uniqueness of each relationship, in the process shedding light on some of the most important themes of his oeuvre: mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory, and friendship itself.

"In his rapt attention to his subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes--how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful work."--Steven Poole, Guardian

"Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."--Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Editors' Introduction: To Reckon with the Dead: Jacques Derrida's Politics of Mourning
Chapter 1: Roland Barthes (1915-80)
The Deaths of Roland Barthes
Chapter 2: Paul de Man (1919-83)
In Memoriam: Of the Soul
Chapter 3: Michel Foucault (1926-84)
"To Do Justice to Freud"
Chapter 4: Max Loreau (1928-90)
Letter to Francine Loreau
Chapter 5: Jean-Marie Benoist (1942-90)
The Taste of Tears
Chapter 6: Louis Althusser (1918-90)
Text Read at Louis Althusser's Funeral
Chapter 7: Edmond Jabès (1912-91)
Letter to Didier Cahen
Chapter 8: Joseph N. Riddel (1931-91)
A demi-mot
Chapter 9: Michel Servière (1941-91)
As If There Were an Art of the Signature
Chapter 10: Louis Marin (1931-92)
By Force of Mourning
Chapter 11: Sarah Kofman (1934-94)
Chapter 12: Gilles Deleuze (1925-95)
I'm Going to Have to Wander All Alone
Chapter 13: Emmanuel Levinas (1906-95)
Adieu
Chapter 14: Jean-François Lyotard (1925-98)
All-Out Friendship
Lyotard and Us
Bibliographies, compiled by Kas Saghafi