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Why did deconstruction emerge when it did? Why did commentators in literary studies seem to need to look back on it from the earliest moments of its emergence? This book argues that the invention of deconstruction was spread across several decades, conducted by many people, and focused on its two central figures, Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man.

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Acknowledgements PART I: INVENTION, ADVENT, EVENT 1. After the Event: Looking back on Deconstruction 2. The Discovery of America: the Reception of Derrida in the United States PART II: THE DOMESTICATION OF DERRIDA 3. Domestication Narratives 4. The Question of History in Derrida and de Man PART III: DECONSTRUCTION AND CRITICAL AUTHORITY 5. Derrida and the Authority of Linguistics 6. The Ventriloquism of Paul de Man PART IV: PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE AND RESPONSIBILITY 7. Metaphor and the Invention of Truth 8. Performativity and Obligation 9. Conclusion: Invention and Responsibility Bibliography Index

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Mark Currie is Professor of Contemporary Literature at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. He is the author of The Unexpected: Narrative Temporality and The Philosophy of Surprise (2013) and About Time: Narrative, Fiction and the Philosophy of Time (2007), both of which explore issues in narrative time. His previous publications include Postmodern Narrative Theory (1997 and 2011), Difference (2004) and Metafiction (1995).

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