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

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

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and Professor of

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, Pao ...

Saas-Fee Saas-Fee () is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

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

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He is a

literary critic 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 discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, best known as an expert on

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

and the works of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

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 ...

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

Education

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

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Teaching positions

He took up a teaching appointment at the

University of Sussex at Brighton , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, 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 Peggy Kamuf (born 1947) is the Marion Frances Chevalier Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. She is one of the primary English translators of the works of Jacques Derrida. She received the Americ ...

) 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 branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...

, 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 (Roman numerals, CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, Henry II (the Wrangler) is rest ...

(2005). ''Sententiousness and the Novel: Laying Down the Law in Eighteenth-Century French Fiction,'' ()
''reprinted as ebook,''
* Bennington, Geoffrey 988(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''
()

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 ''The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge'' (french: La condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir) is a 1979 book by the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, in which the author analyzes the notion of knowledge in postmodern society as ...

,'' (UK ) (US ) Jean-François Lyotard, 1984, w/ Brian Massumi

Notes

External links

Home page at Emory

Geoffrey Bennington
faculty profile at

. (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 European Graduate School faculty Literary critics of French Comparative literature academics Translators of Jacques Derrida Emory University faculty 20th-century translators