Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In Archive Fever , Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology--fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling.

"Judaic mythos, Freudian psychoanalysis, and e-mail all get fused into another staggeringly dense, brilliant slab of scholarship and suggestion."-- The Guardian

"[Derrida] convincingly argues that, although the archive is a public entity, it nevertheless is the repository of the private and personal, including even intimate details."-- Choice

"Beautifully written and clear."--Jeremy Barris, Philosophy in Review

"Translator Prenowitz has managed valiantly to bring into English a difficult but inspiring text that relies on Greek, German, and their translations into French."-- Library Journal

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Note Exergue Preamble
• Foreword Theses Postscript
• Translator's Note Works Cited

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The presumed purpose of this essay, presented at a conference on memory in London on June 5, 1994, is Derrida's reading of Freud's 1906 interpretation of Jensen's Gradiva, but this reading comes late in the exposition and accounts for only 11 percent of the text. In introductions and postscript, French deconstructiononist philosopher Derrida explores the Greek roots of archive, which stands for both "commencement" and "commandment." This means that authority is as much at stake as origin. Archiving represents both attempting to preserve something to be remembered and leaving out something to be forgotten. Derrida notes that this impulse with contradictory purposes is found in individual and collective minds, historically and fictionally. Indeed, history and fiction may blur in the haunted selves that suffer from "archive fever" (mal d'archive). Translator Prenowitz has managed valiantly to bring into English a difficult but inspiring text that relies on Greek, German, and their translations into French. For academic collections.‘Marilyn Gaddis Rose, SUNY, Binghamton (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This book originated in a lecture delivered by Derrida on June 5, 1994, at a coloquium, "Memory: The Question of Archives," presented under the auspices of the International Society for the History of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, of the Freud Museum and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Derrida discusses the development of the concept of archive and archiving, from its Greek origins, through history, and up to our own times. As one familiar with Derrida's thought would expect, through a deconstructive analysis of archiving, Derrida takes the reader through insightful and interesting meditations on remembrance, religion, time, and technology. He attempts to show how the concept of archive contains within itself a fascinating complex of diverse and disparate meanings. He convincingly argues that, although the archive is a public entity, it nevertheless is the repository of the private and personal, including even intimate details. He illustrates this point by a provocative discussion of Freudian psychology and Marxist materialism. Derrida concludes with intriguing observations on the human impulse in our own day to preserve through technology--electronic media--and its profoundly disturbing effects on the human space. Like all other works of Derrida, this is a difficult book, at once obscure and profound but surely rewarding. Translator's note and bibliography are helpful. Highly recommended. Graduate; faculty. R. Puligandla; University of Toledo

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jacques Derrida was born in El-Biar, Algeria on July 15, 1930. He graduated from the École Normal Supérieure in 1956. He taught philosophy and logic at both the University of Paris and the École Normal Supérieure for around 30 years. His works of philosophy and linguistics form the basis of the school of criticism known as deconstruction. This theory states that language is an inadequate method to give an unambiguous definition of a work, as the meaning of text can differ depending on reader, time, and context.

During his lifetime, he wrote more than 40 books on various aspects of deconstruction including Of Grammatology, Glas, The Postcard: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond, and Ulysses Gramophone: Hear Say Yes in Joyce. He died of pancreatic cancer on October 9, 2004 at the age of 74.

(Bowker Author Biography)