Derek Attridge in Conversation: (Critical Voices)

This volume of conversation not only provides a succinct philosophical biography that highlights the wide range of Attridge's interests, but also foregrounds his energetic engagements with literary theory, poetics, and stylistics, as well as his reassessments of contemporary philosophy and literary ideas, specifically those pertaining to the work Jacques Derrida, James Joyce, and J. M. Coetzee. Readers will find in this book a wonderful balancing act as Attridge negotiates the dynamics between the orthodoxies of critical practice and the strategic interventions of deconstructive reading. This book, with an appendix of a chronological listing of Attridge's publications, is an accessible and provocative introduction to the ideas of one of the most brilliant critical voices and generous presences in literary studies in the Anglophone world.

About the Author :
Derek Attridge is Professor of English in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Strathclyde and Rutgers, and has held visiting positions in Italy, France and Australia, and fellowships in Italy, the UK, the US, and South Africa. He is the author/ editor of over 20 books, and serves on eighteen editorial boards.

Review :
This philosophical biography in dialogical form allowed me to retrace the curve of an intellectual progression marked by probity and intelligence, depth and clarity, scholarly precision and cultural curiosity, in a word by integrity a virtue that Derek has always exemplified for me. Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters Derek Attridge is one of the most brilliant and versatile literary thinkers in the Anglophone world. With interests ranging from prosody to deconstruction, together with groundbreaking critical studies of Joyce and Coetzee, Attridge has inspired colleagues and students across three continents. Maud Ellmann, Berlin Professor of English, University of Chicago Attridge is one of the most distinguished literary theorists in the world. This admirably readable book is a marvelously cool, in the sense of fair-minded, introduction to modern theory. Its autobiographical side exemplifies how important are chance encounters with people or books. J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine