Geoffrey Bennington

Geoffrey Bennington (born 1956) is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of French and Professor of Comparative Literature, Emory University, as well as a member of the International College of Philosophy. He is a literary critic and philosopher, best known as an expert on deconstruction and the works of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard. He has translated many of Derrida's works into English.

Education

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

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 French and Comparative Literature Departments.

On deconstructon

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. Many of Bennington's essays on Derrida have criticized explanations of Derrida's work attempted by other scholars. Bennington has also written a monograph-length study of Lyotard's work, "Writing the Event".

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, which has generally had difficulties receiving work by Derrida and others. Bennington has also attempted to facilitate a reconciliation between adherents of Jürgen Habermas and deconstruction by providing [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/habermas.doc a sketch of deconstruction on terms accessible to them] .

Works

* [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "Late Lyotard,"] 2005
* [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "Deconstruction is Not What You Think...,"] 2005
* [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "Open Book/Livre Ouvert,"] 2005
* [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "Other Analyses: Reading Philosophy,"] 2005
* [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "Frontiers: Kant, Hegel, Frege, Wittgenstein,"] 2003
* "Frontières kantiennes," (ISBN 2-7186-0523-5) 2000
* "Interrupting Derrida," (ISBN 0-415-22427-6) 2000
* "Legislations: the Politics of Deconstruction," (ISBN 0-86091-668-5) 1995
* "Dudding: des noms de Rousseau," (ISBN 2-7186-0389-5) 1991
* "Jacques Derrida," (ISBN 0-226-04262-6) 1991, w/ Jacques Derrida
* "Lyotard: Writing the Event," (ISBN 0-521-30246-3) 1988, [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "reprinted as ebook,"] 2005
* "Sententiousness and the Novel: Laying Down the Law in Eighteenth-Century French Fiction," (ISBN 0-521-30246-3) 1985, [http://www.bennington.zsoft.co.uk/ "reprinted as ebook,"] 2005
* "Post-structuralism and the Question of History," (ISBN 0-521-36780-8) (ed.), 1983, w/ Derrick Attridge and Robert Young

Translations

* "Veils," (ISBN 0-8047-3795-9) Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous, 2001
* "Jacques Derrida," (ISBN 0-226-04262-6) Jacques Derrida and Geoffrey Bennington, 1993
* "The Inhuman: Talks on Time," (ISBN 0-8047-2008-8) Jean-François Lyotard, 1991, w/ Rachel Bowlby
*"Virginia Woolf and the Madness of Language," (ISBN 0-415-03194-X) Daniel Ferrer, 1990, w/ Rachel Bowlby
*"Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question," (ISBN 0-226-14319-8) Jacques Derrida, 1989, w/ Rachel Bowlby
*"The Truth in Painting," (ISBN 0-226-14324-4) Jacques Derrida, 1987, w/ Ian McLeod
*"The Postmodern Condition," (UK ISBN 0-7190-1450-6) (US ISBN 0-8166-1173-4) Jean-François Lyotard, 1984, w/ Brian Massumi

External links

* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/johnson.doc "A Piece about Baudelaire and Barbara Johnson" (Word doc)]
* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/nouvel.doc "A Piece about Jean Nouvel" (Word doc)]
* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/biog.doc "A Piece about Philosophical Biography" (Word Doc)]
* [http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/erarchive/2001/November/er.Nov5/11_05_01distinguished.html Emory announcement of appointment]
* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/habermas.doc "Ex-Communication," an essay on Habermas (Word doc)]
* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/ Home page at Emory]
* [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/frenchthought/derrida.htm "Politics and Friendship: a Discussion with Jacques Derrida"]
* [http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~gbennin/inaug.doc Professorial Lecture given at Sussex (Word doc)]
* [http://www.cas.usf.edu/journal/bennington/gbennington.html Seulemonde interview]

ee also

*list of deconstructionists