''Acts of Literature'' is a 1991 philosophical and literary book based on essays by the French philosopher

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

. The book is the first collection of Derrida's essays on Western-culture literary texts. Derek Attridge edited the book in close association with Derrida himself.

Summary

Derrida discusses authors such as

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, and

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Influence

A part highly cited by scholars is the chapter dedicated to James Joyce: ''‘Ulysses’ Gramophone: Hear Say Yes In Joyce.'' (pp. 253–309).

Editions

*1st edition published by

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, November 20, 1991. .

References

Review
by Nick Groom (1995) ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 90, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 726–728
Review
by Wheeler, Kathleen M. Journal of European Studies, September, 1993 *Burns, Christy (1999)
Joyce's significance for Derrida
' Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Fall 1999 *Roughley, ALAN (1999) Reading Derrida Reading Joyce (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999), p. 176 {{Jacques Derrida 1991 non-fiction books Works by Jacques Derrida