Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

PART I JACKIE 1930–1962

1 The Negus 1930–1942 9

2 Under the Sun of Algiers 1942–1949 19

3 The Walls of Louis-le-Grand 1949–1952 35

4 The École Normale Supérieure 1952–1956 59

5 A Year in America 1956–1957 80

6 The Soldier of Koléa 1957–1959 92

7 Melancholia in Le Mans 1959–1960 108

8 Towards Independence 1960–1962 113

PART II DERRIDA 1963–1983

1 From Husserl to Artaud 1963–1964 127

2 In the Shadow of Althusser 1963–1966 144

3 Writing Itself 1965–1966 155

4 A Lucky Year 1967 170

5 A Period of Withdrawal 1968 186

6 Uncomfortable Positions 1969–1971 207

7 Severed Ties 1972–1973 230

8 Glas 1973–1975 256

9 In Support of Philosophy 1973–1976 267

10 Another Life 1976–1977 288

11 From the Nouveaux Philosophes to the Estates General 1977–1979 298

12 Postcards and Proofs 1979–1981 308

13 Night in Prague 1981–1982 332

14 A New Hand of Cards 1982–1983 342

PART III JACQUES DERRIDA 1984–2004

1 The Territories of Deconstruction 1984–1986 355

2 From the Heidegger Aff air to the de Man Aff air 1987–1988 379

3 Living Memory 1988–1990 402

4 Portrait of the Philosopher at Sixty 417

5 At the Frontiers of the Institution 1991–1992 440

6 Of Deconstruction in America 451

7 Specters of Marx 1993–1995 462

8 The Derrida International 1996–1999 478

9 The Time of Dialogue 2000–2002 495

10 In Life and in Death 2003–2004 518

Notes 543

Sources 593

Bibliography 596

Index 605

About the Author

Benoit Peeters was born in Paris in 1956. Following a degreein Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris I), he went on to study forhis Masters at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes underthe direction of Roland Barthes. He has since published over fortyworks on a wide variety of subjects and has written essays andbiographies on Herge, Alfred Hitchcock, and Paul Valery.

Reviews

Winner of the Choice award for Outstanding AcademicTitle 'Exhaustive and exhilarating.' TheScotsman 'Lucid, intelligent and richly informative.' Times Literary Supplement 'Peeters has ransacked the voluminous Derrida archives andinterviewed scores of his friends and colleagues. The result is amarvellously compelling account, lucidly translated by AndrewBrown. The man who emerges from this portrait is an agonised soulwith sudden outbreaks of gaiety, an astonishingly original thinkerwith more than a dash of vanity who nevertheless made himself fullyavailable to the humblest student.' TerryEagleton, The Guardian "Peeters' biography is unique in shaping Jacques Derrida's legacyin a way that a new generation would benefit from knowing." The Tablet 'Peeters is not a Derridean, but his book has qualities Derridamight have appreciated, above all a supreme patience withintellectual difficulty and abstention from moral judgement. He hasdone a heroic amount of research, interviewing more than a hundredof Derrida's friends and associates. He also had the co-operationof Derrida's widow, Marguerite. But his principal source ofinformation is Derrida's own writing ... Derrida saved everythinghe wrote: he regarded every scrap as a 'trace', an almost sacredemblem of survival - and all writing, from poetry to post-its, hadphilosophical implications. Peeters puts Derrida's professionalwriting and these traces on an equal footing, using the one toilluminate the other. We see his many sides: a loyal friend andirrepressible seducer; a critic of dogma who couldn't bring himselfto admit his own errors; a man who loathed tribalism but was sothin-skinned and so in need of adoration that he ended up leadinghis own academic tribe.' LondonReview of Books 'Peeters has cut through a lot of the myth and mystique surroundingDerrida. There is probably more illuminating information here - andcorrespondence - than has ever been made public before ...Peeters's Derrida is vulnerable, sensitive, prone to bouts ofmelancholia, neurotic, hypochondriac, and verging on suicidal. Heis as tormented and torn as his prose. This is Derrida the poeticsoul.' LiteraryReview 'Peeters' poignant Derrida: A Biograghy is - evidently - notan autobiography, yet it is a piece of writing that draws uponDerrida's own auto-biographies; on a life of work that depicts thelife as work, as a work in progress, of a life in writing aswriting (not to mention Peeters' unprecedented access to Derrida'spersonal letters and other writings) ... Indeed, the complexrelationship between literature and philosophy, for Derrida, is arecurrent theme in the biography, and the struggle between the two,in Derrida's adolescence (which, as he states, "lasted until I wasthirty-two"), makes for fascinating reading.' Review31 In addressing a philosopher of the importance of JacquesDerrida, whose massive output about 60 volumes, notincluding his as yet unpublished seminars has beentranslated and debated the world over, Benoit Peeters hasquite rightly chosen not the origins or content of the work itself,but the life of the man behind it. In short, he has written anexcellent biography entirely in keeping with Anglo-Saxontraditions. ElisabethRoudinesco, The Guardian 'Peeters biography humanizes the philosopher in a way thatopens up his work in a new way, and most importantly, makes itaccessible.' PhilosophyAfter Dark '[Peeters] excels at evoking the huge energy and application of theworld's most travelled philosopher. If you've ever given up onDerrida, this portrait of him as a lovable, thin-skinned andnarcissistic outside in France who shot to fame in the UnitedStates should make you reconsider.' New Statesman 'A real tour de force. Assimilating a vast amount of material Derrida s own voluminous publications, unpublisheddocuments and correspondence, and conversations with a hostof acquaintances Benoit Peeters has produced acompelling narrative that sheds light on all aspects ofDerrida s remarkable career.' Jonathan Culler, Cornell University