'In this fascinating and important study, Judith Still is "on the track" of Derrida's writings on the human/animal question. She proceeds à pas de loup, presenting, critiquing and amplifying his texts with issues of gender (social and grammatical), the borderline with "less human humans", cannibalism, naming, weaving and much more.'Naomi Segal, Birkbeck, University of London

A sustained consideration of the question of Derrida and defining the human in relation to animals

Judith Still offers a comprehensive discussion of Derrida's contribution to the long-standing philosophical and political debate which insists on defining 'man' against 'the animal'. She makes extensive reference to the two volumes recently published, in French and English, of Derrida's seminar series The Beast and the Sovereign, with particular attention to his source texts such as Defoe, Hobbes, La Fontaine, Rousseau, Agamben and Heidegger. Added to this close reading of Derrida is a consideration of contemporary women's writings on animals, including work by Carter, Cixous, Darrieussecq, Duffy, NDiaye, Tsvetaeva and Vivien.

The result is a challenging series of case studies of the ways in which the defining of man against animality has had an impact on animals and also on those human beings defined as less than fully human - savages, slaves and women.

It will appeal to those interested in Derrida and in animal studies, and how these relate to questions of enduring human inequalities whether based on race or sex.

Judith Still is Professor of French and Critical Theory and Head of the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham. She is the author of Derrida and Hospitality (Edinburgh University Press, 2010).


Cover image: Liz Emirzian. Transformation. 2013. Acrylic on Wood. Brooklyn, New York

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Chapter One 'Introduction', 1. The Frontier or Abyss - and Animals as Good to Think, 2. The Derrida Texts in Question and the Problem of Defining Terms, 3. Socio-political Contexts, 4. The Philosophical Tradition: Aristotle to Levinas, 5. The Modern Critical and Literary Context, 6. Savages, Slaves and Women; Chapter Two 'Man is a Wolf to Man', 1. Introduction: The Beast and the Sovereign and Lycological Intertexts, 2. La Fontaine and the Fable of Might and Right, 3. Rousseau and Hobbes: Wolves in the State of Nature, 4. Wolves in the Encyclopédie, 5. From Hunger to Taste, and the Eating of Flesh, 6. Concluding Comments; Chapter Three 'The Love of the Wolf' , 1. A Certain Tradition, 2. Renée Vivien and 'The Lady with the She-Wolf', 3. Cixous and Other Loving, 4. Little Red Riding Hood; Chapter Four 'The Savage', 1. Background: the Ethnographic and Philosophic Encounter with the New World from La Fontaine Onwards, 2. What is the Difference between 'Man' and 'Animal' (Savage)?, 3. Solitude, Social Characteristics and the Human Community: the Community of Cannibals?, 4. Derrida and 'Eating Well'; Chapter Five 'The Slave', 1. Sovereignty: Masters Defining Slaves, 2. The Animal-thing, 3. The Pretend Family of Slavery, 4. The Community and Terror: Letters from an American Farmer; Chapter Six 'Women and Other Animals: Working Metamorphoses', 1. Fables: Duffy's 'Mrs Aesop', 2. Work and Technology: Women as Animals, 3. Metamorphoses , 4. Porcine Metamorphosis: From Ulysses's Companions to Darrieussecq, 5. Love and Money in Marie Ndiaye's Ladivine, 6. Conclusion around Eating and Writing; Chapter Seven 'Wanting Conclusion', 1. Blindness, Textual and Historical, 2. Self-positing Man and Enlightenment, 3. The State and Terror, 4. Returning to Animals, 5. Women and Emotion, 6. Stupid Conclusions and Gesturing to the Future.