Geoffrey Bennington
Professor of Philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS.
Geoffrey Bennington (b. 1956) is a British philosopher and literary critic. He is a professor of philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS and the Asa G. Candler Professor of Modern French Thought at Emory University (Georgia, USA). He received his bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) in 1978 and his master’s and doctorate degree in 1984, both from the University of Oxford. Bennington was the chair of the French Department at the University of Sussex (1990–94 and 1995–97) where he was the Director of the Centre for Modern French Thought (1997–2001).
His research interests include: modern French literature and thought, the eighteenth-century novel, literary theory, and deconstruction. Bennington is widely known for his expertise in deconstruction and the work of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard. In his works, he explores the political dimension of deconstruction and claims that deconstruction is capable of providing access to political thinking which cannot be offered anywhere else. He is also a renowned translator of Derrida’s and Lyotard’s works.
Together with Derrida, he wrote Jacques Derrida (1991), which is comprised of two texts. Bennington’s “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. The guiding idea of this book, Bennington suggests, comes from computers. Bennington wants Derrida’s thought to be as accessible as possible, to the point of making it look like an interactive computer program. However, another aim of the book is to show the inherent impossibility of such a task. At the same time, it is also a parody of introductory books; the interaction between Bennington’s and Derrida’s texts dramatise the fact that any system of thought must always remain permanently open.
Interrupting Derrida (2000) examines the notion of “interruption” and its importance for ethics, politics, and literature. In this book, Bennington also analyses some significant and recurring themes of Derrida’s work: death, friendship, time, and endings. Not Half No End: Militantly Melancholic Essays in Memory of Jacques Derrida (2010) consists of the essays that Bennington wrote after the death of Derrida. These essays examine the nature of mourning and melancholy, and its relevance in Derrida’s work.
Bennington has written two books on the work of Jean-François Lyotard: Lyotard: Writing the Event (1988) and Late Lyotard (2005). In Lyotard: Writing the Event, he attempts to offer a general introduction to Lyotard’s work that will not be limited to the discussion of “postmodern” and the “postmodern condition,” but will also explore ethical and political aspects of Lyotard’s thought. He writes about the importance of Lyotard’s understanding of the event and links it with the analyses of desire, production, justice, and language. Bennington insists that Lyotard’s work strives to respect the heterogeneity of the event and that the entirety of his work is devoted to the experimentation with various ways of achieving that respect. LateLyotard can be considered as a sequel to Lyotard: Writing the Event. It is Bennington’s reaction to the works that Lyotard wrote after 1988 and before his death in 1998. In Late Lyotard, Bennington reconsiders his position from the previous work and attempts to bring forth nuances of Lyotard’s thought that remained unexplored in his earlier work.
In Legislations: The Politics of Deconstruction (1994), Bennington uses the theoretical apparatus of Derrida and Lyotard (especially the notion of “postmodern”) in order to question the very nature of “politics” and the “political.” According to Bennington, deconstruction is inherently political because it is an opening to an irreducible alterity, and this opening is a place where legislation happens. Presently, he is exploring the consequences of his understanding that politics is characterised by the pre-ontological and pre-ethical opening to the other, and writing a deconstructive account of political philosophy provisionally entitled Scatter (the matter with democrary).
Works
Books
Translations
Veils
Bennington, Geoffrey, trans. Veils, by Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous. Stanford University Press. 2001. ISBN: 0804737940
Jacques Derrida
Bennington, Geoffrey, trans. Jacques Derrida, by Jacques Derrida. University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 0226042618
The Inhuman: Reflections on Time
Bennington, Geoffrey, and Rachel Bowlby, trans. The Inhuman: Reflections on Time, by Jean-François Lyotard. Stanford University Press, 1991. ISBN: 0804720088
Virginia Woolf and the Madness of Language
Bennington, Geoffrey, and Rachel Bowlby, trans. Virginia Woolf and the Madness of Language, by Daniel Ferrer. Routledge. 1990. ISBN: 041503194X
Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question
Bennington, Geoffrey, and Rachel Bowlby, trans. Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question, by Jacques Derrida. University of Chicago Press, 1989. ISBN: 0226143171
The Truth in Painting
Bennington, Geoffrey, and Ian McLoed, trans. The Truth in Painting, by Jacques Derrida. University of Chicago Press, 1987. ISBN: 0226143236
The Postmodern Condition
Bennington, Geoffrey, and Brian Massumi, trans. The Postmodern Condition, by Jean-François Lyotard. Manchester University Press. 1984. ISBN: 0719014549
Articles
Peut-être une politique…
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Peut-être une politique…” Les Cahiers philosophiques Vol. 117, April (2009): 46-61.
For Better and for Worse (There Again…)
Bennington, Geoffrey. “For Better and for Worse (There Again…).” Discourse Vol 30, No. 1-2 (2008): 191-207.
For Better and for Worse (There Again…)
Bennington, Geoffrey. “For Better and for Worse (There Again…).” Diacritics Vol. 38, No. 1-2 (2009): 1-12.
Scatter
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Scatter.” The Oxford Literary Review Vol. 30, No. 1 (2008): 1-43.
Handshake
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Handshake.” Derrida Today Vol. 1, No. 1 (2008).
Foundations
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Foundations.” Textual Practice Vol. 21, No. 2 (2007): 231-49.
Derrida’s “Eighteenth Century
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Derrida’s “Eighteenth Century.” Eighteenth-Century StudiesVol. 40, No. 3 (2007): 381-93.
On Transcendental Fiction
Bennington, Geoffrey. “On Transcendental Fiction.” Discourse Vol. 29, No. 1 (2007): 169-88.
The Fall of Sovereignty
Bennington, Geoffrey. “The Fall of Sovereignty.” Epoché Vol. 10, No. 2 (2006): 395-406.
Superanus
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Superanus.” Theory and Event Vol. 8, No. 1 (2005).
…de mon mieux
Bennington, Geoffrey. “…de mon mieux.” Les cahiers de l’herne (2004): 71-2.
Shelf Life
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Shelf Life.” Bucknell Review : Adrift in the Technological Matrix Vol. XLVI, No. 2 (2003): 140-57.
Personal Growth
Bennington, Geoffrey (published anonymously). “Personal Growth.” The Oxford Literary Review 23 (2002): 137-52.
Le livre réel
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Le livre réel.” Revue des sciences humaines 226-7 (2002): 125-37.
Le temps de la lecture
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Le temps de la lecture.” Etudes françaises Vol 38, No. 1-2 (2002): 78-85.
Time After Time
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Time After Time.” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology Vol. 32, No. 3 (2001): 300-311.
Ex-communication
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Ex-communication.” Studies in Social and Political Thought 5 (2001): 50-55.
The End is Here
Bennington, Geoffrey. “The End is Here.” Tekhnema 6 (2001): 34-50.
The Same, Even, Itself…
Bennington, Geoffrey. “The Same, Even, Itself…” Parallax Vol. 6, No. 4 (2000): 88-98.
For the Sake of Argument (Up to a Point)
Bennington, Geoffrey. “For the Sake of Argument (Up to a Point).” Ratio Vol XIII, No. 4 (2000): 332-54.
Forget to remember, remember to forget: Sade avec Kant
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Forget to remember, remember to forget: Sade avec Kant.” Paragraph Vol. 23, No. 1 (2000): 75-86.
Le Secret de Kant
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Le Secret de Kant.” Le Contretemps 2 (1997): 134-9.
Ex-Kommunikation
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Ex-Kommunikation” Translated by Peter Krapp. Foreign Body6 (1997).
Membranes: a reading of Freud’s metapsychology
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Membranes: a reading of Freud’s metapsychology.” Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 3 (1994-5): 369-82.
Frontier
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Frontier.” Paragraph Vol. 17, No. 3 (1995): 224-6.
Plus que parfait
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Plus que parfait.” Le Contretemps 1 (1995): 91-5.
Frontiers: two seminar sessions
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Frontiers: two seminar sessions.” The Oxford Literary Review14 (1992): 197-227.
After the Event
Bennington, Geoffrey. “After the Event.” Columbia Documents of Architecture and Theory 1 (1992): 147-59.
The Rationality of Postmodern Relativity
Bennington, Geoffrey. “The Rationality of Postmodern Relativity.” Journal of Philosophy and the Visual Arts (1990): 23-31.
Deconstruction is not what you think
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Deconstruction is not what you think.” Art and Design Vol. 4, No. 3-4 (1988): 6-7.
Complexity Without Contradiction in Architecture
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Complexity Without Contradiction in Architecture.” AAFiles15 (1987): 15-18.
Lyotard: From Discourse and Figure to Experimentation and Event
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Lyotard: From Discourse and Figure to Experimentation and Event.” Paragraph 6 (1985): 19-27.
Sade: Laying Down the Law
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Sade: Laying Down the Law.” The Oxford Literary Review Vol. 6, No. 1 (1984): 38-56.
Theory: They or We
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Theory: They or We.” Paragraph 1 (1983).
Les Machines de l’Opéra: le jeu du signe dans le Spectateur français de Marivaux
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Les Machines de l’Opéra: le jeu du signe dans le Spectateur français de Marivaux.” French Studies Vol. 36, No. 2 (1982): 154-70.
Réappropriations
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Réappropriations.” Poétique 48 (1981): 495-512.
From Narrative to Text: Love and Writing in Crébillon fils, Duclos, Barthes
Bennington, Geoffrey. “From Narrative to Text: Love and Writing in Crébillon fils, Duclos, Barthes.” The Oxford Literary Review Vol. 4, No. 1 (1979): 62-81.
Double Tounging: Derrida’s Monolingualism
Bennington, Geoffrey. “Double Tounging: Derrida’s Monolingualism.” University of South Carolina. No Date.
Interviews
Interview
Bennington, Geoffrey and Seulemonde. “Interview.” Seulemonde Online Journal. No Date.