Geoffrey Bennington (born 1956) is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of French and Professor of

Comparative Literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

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, and Professor of

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, as well as a member of the International College of Philosophy in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He is a

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, best known as an expert on

deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

and the works of

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, ...

and

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and p ...

. Bennington has translated many of Derrida's works into English.

Education

Bennington received his B.A., M.A., and D.Phil. from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Teaching positions

He took up a teaching appointment at the University of Sussex at Brighton, where he created an M.A. program in Modern French Thought and twice served as chair of the French department. Since arriving at Emory in 2001, he has chaired both the French and the Comparative Literature Departments.Emory announcement of appointment
2001.

Publications

He co-wrote the book ''Jacques Derrida'' with Derrida. Bennington's contribution, "Derridabase", is an attempt to provide a comprehensive explication of Derrida's work. "Derridabase" appears on the upper two-thirds of the book's pages, while Derrida's contribution, "Circumfession", is written on the lower third of each page. Derrida's "Circumfession" is, among other things, intended to show how Derrida's work exceeds Bennington's explication: by introducing details about his own circumcision and its possible meanings Derrida shows the impossibility of such a regulated database of his writings. Many of Bennington's essays on Derrida collected in ''Legislations, Interrupting Derrida'', and ''Not Half No End'', have criticized explanations of Derrida's work attempted by other scholars. Bennington has also written two monographs on Lyotard, ''Writing the Event'' and ''Late Lyotard'', and has also written extensively on Rousseau and Kant, developing original accounts of the "paradox of the legislator" in the former and "interrupted teleology" in the latter. He is currently writing a deconstructive account of political philosophy. He has translated a number of works by Derrida and others, and is General Editor (with Peggy Kamuf) of the English translations of Derrida's posthumously publishe
seminars
He has at times tried to engage members of the British press hostile to Derrida's work and has also attempted to explicate the relationship between deconstruction and

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

, which has generally had difficulties receiving work by Derrida and others.

Works

Books

* Bennington, Geoffrey; Attridge, Derek; Young, Robert (1983). ''Post-structuralism and the Question of History,'' () (ed.) * Bennington, Geoffrey

985 Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theophanu and her mother-in-law Adelaide at an ...

(2005). ''Sententiousness and the Novel: Laying Down the Law in Eighteenth-Century French Fiction,'' ()
''reprinted as ebook,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey

988 Year 988 ( CMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Fall – Emperor Basil II, supported by a contingent of 6,000 Varangians (the future Varangian Guard), organiz ...

(2005). ''Lyotard: Writing the Event,'' (
''reprinted as ebook,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (1991). ''Jacques Derrida,'' (), w/ Jacques Derrida * Bennington, Geoffrey (1991). ''Dudding: des noms de Rousseau,'' () * Bennington, Geoffrey (1995). ''Legislations: the Politics of Deconstruction,'' () * Bennington, Geoffrey (2000). ''Interrupting Derrida,'' () * Bennington, Geoffrey (2000). ''Frontières kantiennes,'' () * Bennington, Geoffrey (2003)
''Frontiers: Kant, Hegel, Frege, Wittgenstein,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (2005)
''Other Analyses: Reading Philosophy,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (2005)
''Open Book/Livre Ouvert,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (2005)
''Deconstruction is Not What You Think...,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (2005)
''Late Lyotard,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey (2010)
''Not Half No End: Militantly Melancholic Essays in Memory of Jacques Derrida,''
() * Bennington, Geoffrey (2011)
''Géographie et autres lectures,''
() * Bennington, Geoffrey (2016)
''Scatter I: The Politics of Politics in Foucault, Heidegger, and Derrida''
() * Bennington, Geoffrey (2017)
''Kant on the Frontier: Philosophy, Politics, and the Ends of the Earth''
() * Bennington, Geoffrey (2021,
Scatter 2: Politics in Deconstruction
' (ISBN 9780823289936)

Journal articles

Translations

*

''() Jacques Derrida, 2016 *

''() Jacques Derrida, 2011 *
The Beast and the Sovereign, I
''() Jacques Derrida, 2009 * ''Veils,'' () Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous, 2001 * ''Jacques Derrida,'' () Jacques Derrida and Geoffrey Bennington, 1993 * ''The Inhuman: Talks on Time,'' () Jean-François Lyotard, 1991, w/ Rachel Bowlby *''Virginia Woolf and the Madness of Language,'' () Daniel Ferrer, 1990, w/ Rachel Bowlby *''Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question,'' () Jacques Derrida, 1989, w/ Rachel Bowlby *''The Truth in Painting,'' () Jacques Derrida, 1987, w/ Ian McLeod *'' The Postmodern Condition,'' (UK ) (US ) Jean-François Lyotard, 1984, w/ Brian Massumi

Notes

External links

Home page at Emory

Geoffrey Bennington
faculty profile at European Graduate School. (Biography, bibliography and articles)
Electronic publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennington, Geoffrey 20th-century British philosophers Deconstruction British literary critics 1956 births Living people Academics of the University of Sussex Academic staff of European Graduate School Literary critics of French Comparative literature academics Translators of Jacques Derrida Emory University faculty 20th-century British translators