French philosopher, b. Algeria. A professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, he has attempted to take apart, or “deconstruct,” the edifice of Western metaphysics and reveal its incoherent foundations.
In Of Grammatology (1967, tr. 1976), for example, Derrida contends that Western metaphysics has judged writing to be inferior to speech, not comprehending that the features of writing that supposedly render it inferior to speech are actually essential features of both. He argues that language only refers to other language, therefore negating the idea of a single, valid “meaning” of a text as intended by the author. Rather, the author’s intentions are subverted by the free play of language, giving rise to many meanings the author never intended.
Derrida has had a major influence on literary critics, especially those of the “Yale school,” including Paul de Man, Geoffrey Hartman, J. Hillis Miller, and Harold Bloom. These deconstructionists, along with Derrida, dominated the field of literary criticism in the 1970s and early 1980s.