Thinking Out of Sight: Writings on the Arts of the Visible
by Jacques Derrida edited by Joana Masó, Ginette Michaud and Javier Bassas translated by Laurent Milesi
University of Chicago Press, 2021 Paper: 978-0-226-14075-9 | Cloth: 978-0-226-14061-2 | eISBN: 978-0-226-59002-8 Library of Congress Classification N67.D4713 2020 Dewey Decimal Classification 700.1
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Jacques Derrida remains a leading voice of philosophy, his works still resonating today—and for more than three decades, one of the main sites of Derridean deconstruction has been the arts. Collecting nineteen texts spanning from 1979 to 2004, Thinking out of Sight brings to light Derrida’s most inventive ideas about the making of visual artworks.
The book is divided into three sections. The first demonstrates Derrida’s preoccupation with visibility, image, and space. The second contains interviews and collaborations with artists on topics ranging from the politics of color to the components of painting. Finally, the book delves into Derrida’s writings on photography, video, cinema, and theater, ending with a text published just before his death about his complex relationship to his own image. With many texts appearing for the first time in English, Thinking out of Sight helps us better understand the critique of representation and visibility throughout Derrida’s work, and, most importantly, to assess the significance of his insights about art and its commentary.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Ginette Michaud is professor in the Département des littératures de langue française at the Université de Montréal. Joana Masó teaches French literature and composition at the University of Barcelona, where Javier Bassas teaches translation theory. Laurent Milesi is professor of English literature and critical theory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
REVIEWS
“Who other than Jacques Derrida could have demonstrated with this degree of insight and lucidity the essential relationship between the visual arts and invisibility, nonappearance, absence, the night, blindness, even death? This superb collection of essays on painting, drawing, photography, video, cinema, and theater will forever transform both the way we understand Derrida and the way we look at the visual arts.”
— Michael Naas, DePaul University
“This wonderful collection brings together several of Derrida’s most beautiful and wildly engaging thoughts on the visual and performing arts. Many of the essays, lectures, and interviews are presented here for the first time in English, and others are even published for the first time anywhere. Together, not only do they delineate the relations among drawing, painting, photography, film, theater, and writing, but they also suggest that the arts are never just art; they are different modes of thinking and writing. This collection offers an exquisitely rich introduction to Derrida’s singular contribution to the arts of reading and thinking.”
— Eduardo L. Cadava, Princeton University
"This wide-ranging collection of essays, lectures, and interviews, shows philosopher Jacques Derrida (Acts of Religion) (1930–2004) applying his signature deconstructionist thinking to the visual arts...Philosophically minded readers will find much to consider in the way of art criticism."
— Publisher's Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editors’ Foreword
Part 1: The Traces of the Visible
The Spatial Arts: An Interview by Peter Brunette and David Wills
Thinking Out of Sight
Trace and Archive, Image and Art
Part 2: Rhetoric of the Line: Painting, Drawing
To Illustrate, He Said
The Philosopher’s Design: An Interview by Jérôme Coignard
Drawing by Design
Pregnances
To Save the Phenomena: For Salvatore Puglia
Four Ways to Drawing
Ecstasy, Crisis: An Interview with Valerio Adami and Roger Lesgards
Color to the Letter
The “Undersides” of Painting, Writing, and Drawing: Support, Substance, Subject, Suppost, and Supplice
Part 3: Spectralities of the Image: Photography, Video, Cinema, and Theater
Aletheia
Videor
The Ghost Dance: An Interview by Mark Lewis and Andrew Payne
Cinema and Its Ghosts: An Interview by Antoine de Baecque and Thierry Jousse
The Sacrifice
Marx Is (Quite) Somebody
The Survivor, the Surcease, the Surge
Notes
Bibliography on the Arts and Architecture
Filmography
Notes on Editors and Translators
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Thinking Out of Sight: Writings on the Arts of the Visible
by Jacques Derrida edited by Joana Masó, Ginette Michaud and Javier Bassas translated by Laurent Milesi
University of Chicago Press, 2021 Paper: 978-0-226-14075-9 Cloth: 978-0-226-14061-2 eISBN: 978-0-226-59002-8
Jacques Derrida remains a leading voice of philosophy, his works still resonating today—and for more than three decades, one of the main sites of Derridean deconstruction has been the arts. Collecting nineteen texts spanning from 1979 to 2004, Thinking out of Sight brings to light Derrida’s most inventive ideas about the making of visual artworks.
The book is divided into three sections. The first demonstrates Derrida’s preoccupation with visibility, image, and space. The second contains interviews and collaborations with artists on topics ranging from the politics of color to the components of painting. Finally, the book delves into Derrida’s writings on photography, video, cinema, and theater, ending with a text published just before his death about his complex relationship to his own image. With many texts appearing for the first time in English, Thinking out of Sight helps us better understand the critique of representation and visibility throughout Derrida’s work, and, most importantly, to assess the significance of his insights about art and its commentary.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Ginette Michaud is professor in the Département des littératures de langue française at the Université de Montréal. Joana Masó teaches French literature and composition at the University of Barcelona, where Javier Bassas teaches translation theory. Laurent Milesi is professor of English literature and critical theory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
REVIEWS
“Who other than Jacques Derrida could have demonstrated with this degree of insight and lucidity the essential relationship between the visual arts and invisibility, nonappearance, absence, the night, blindness, even death? This superb collection of essays on painting, drawing, photography, video, cinema, and theater will forever transform both the way we understand Derrida and the way we look at the visual arts.”
— Michael Naas, DePaul University
“This wonderful collection brings together several of Derrida’s most beautiful and wildly engaging thoughts on the visual and performing arts. Many of the essays, lectures, and interviews are presented here for the first time in English, and others are even published for the first time anywhere. Together, not only do they delineate the relations among drawing, painting, photography, film, theater, and writing, but they also suggest that the arts are never just art; they are different modes of thinking and writing. This collection offers an exquisitely rich introduction to Derrida’s singular contribution to the arts of reading and thinking.”
— Eduardo L. Cadava, Princeton University
"This wide-ranging collection of essays, lectures, and interviews, shows philosopher Jacques Derrida (Acts of Religion) (1930–2004) applying his signature deconstructionist thinking to the visual arts...Philosophically minded readers will find much to consider in the way of art criticism."
— Publisher's Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editors’ Foreword
Part 1: The Traces of the Visible
The Spatial Arts: An Interview by Peter Brunette and David Wills
Thinking Out of Sight
Trace and Archive, Image and Art
Part 2: Rhetoric of the Line: Painting, Drawing
To Illustrate, He Said
The Philosopher’s Design: An Interview by Jérôme Coignard
Drawing by Design
Pregnances
To Save the Phenomena: For Salvatore Puglia
Four Ways to Drawing
Ecstasy, Crisis: An Interview with Valerio Adami and Roger Lesgards
Color to the Letter
The “Undersides” of Painting, Writing, and Drawing: Support, Substance, Subject, Suppost, and Supplice
Part 3: Spectralities of the Image: Photography, Video, Cinema, and Theater
Aletheia
Videor
The Ghost Dance: An Interview by Mark Lewis and Andrew Payne
Cinema and Its Ghosts: An Interview by Antoine de Baecque and Thierry Jousse
The Sacrifice
Marx Is (Quite) Somebody
The Survivor, the Surcease, the Surge
Notes
Bibliography on the Arts and Architecture
Filmography
Notes on Editors and Translators
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE