Deconstruction and Religion

Undergraduate / Graduate

In this course we will carefully consider selected works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. We will address the emergence of religious themes in his early work and reconsider the relation between deconstruction and theology as potentially divergent modes of discourse. We will then examine the roles of messianism, belief, and confession in his later work. We will also discuss the so-called closure of metaphysics: How does Derrida articulate this closure in his early work, and how does this inform his efforts to distinguish deconstruction from theology or so-called negative theology? Does the Derridean notion of closure change over time? If so, how? And what role do the writings on religion and the gift play in interrogating the meaning of closure?