Research Catalog

Title

Archive fever : a Freudian impression / Jacques Derrida ; translated by Eric Prenowitz.

Author

Derrida, Jacques

Publication

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Prenowitz, Eric

Description

113 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

• In his latest work, Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology - all fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. The archival concept has of late played a pivotal role in critical debate. A place of origin, yet of perpetuity, a place of stasis and order, yet of discovery, the notion of archive houses a fascinating complex of diverse, and often disparate, meanings.
• As a depository of civic record and social history whose very name derives from the Greek word for town hall, the archive would seem to be a public entity, yet it is stocked with the personal, even intimate, artifacts of private lives. It is this inherent tension between public and private which inaugurates, for Derrida, an inquiry into the human impulse to preserve, through technology as well as tradition, both a historical and a psychic past. What emerges is a marvelous expansive work, engaging at once Judaic mythos, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism in a profound reflection on the real, the unreal, and the virtual.
• Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling.

Series Statement

Religion and postmodernism

Uniform Title

• Mal d'archive. English
• Religion and postmodernism.

Alternative Title

Mal d'archive.

Subject

• Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939
• Memory (Philosophy)
• Psychoanalysis

Note

• Originally presented as a lecture June 5, 1994, at an international colloquium entitled: Memory : the Question of Archives in London, England.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 113).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Machine derived contents note: Table of contents for Archive fever : a Freudian impression / Jacques Derrida ; translated by Eric Prenowitz. -- Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog -- Information from electronic data provided by the publisher. May be incomplete or contain other coding. -- Note -- Exergue -- Preamble -- Foreword -- Theses -- Postscript -- Translator's Note -- Works Cited -- Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Memory (Philosophy)Psychoanalysis, Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.

ISBN

• 0226143368 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0226143678 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^96018568^

OCLC

• 34752547
• SCSB-10882457

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library