Gathered here are texts letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funera
l orations written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul
de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabes, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofma
n, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Mar
ie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Serviere.
With his words, Derrida bears
witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of eac
h relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of tact, tast
e, and ethical responsibility involved in speaking of the dead the risks of usin
g the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation, personal vendetta,
and the expiation of guilt. More than a collection of memorial addresses, this
volume sheds light not only on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent
French thinkers of the past quarter century but also on some of the most importa
nt themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory
, and friendship itself.
