Output details

Radical indecision: Barthes, Blanchot, Derrida, and the future of criticism

Material corresponding to pp. 49-70 of this output was first published in After Blanchot: Literature, Philosophy, Criticism (University of Delaware Press, 2005). The 2010 version of this chapter incorporates minor changes. Material appearing pp. 194-213 in this output is a reworked and extended version of material first published in 2005.

The neuter (Barthes, Blanchot) and undecidable (Derrida) are among the most important yet most commonly misunderstood concepts to have emerged from writing about literature during the last fifty years. In analysing the philosophical complexity of these concepts with regard to the future of literary criticism, this output offers an extensive account of the work of three major thinkers, and explores in detail their engagement with a wide number of challenging philosophical and literary texts. The fruit of ten years of research, the book, at 182,000 words, is equivalent in range, volume, and depth, to at least two substantial monograph texts.