Reading literature through the looking glass of theory.
Ulysses by James Joyce
If you've read even one page of Ulysses, it's easy to see why Joyce's text would appeal to Derrida. It's all about play at every level. Words spin out of control, and their sounds become more impor...
"Correspondances" by Charles Baudelaire
Paul de Man performs a famous close reading of this sonnet in his essay "Anthropomorphism and Trope in Lyric." It's a tough text, but de Man was never one to shy away from difficulty. Fittingly, th...
"The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe
Derrida got into a famous face-off with Lacan over this detective story. How's that? Well, put your eyeballs to this collection of essays, where the answer to that critical riddle is hidden in plai...
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
We won't rehash the plot of this analyzed-to-death tragedy, except to say that its plot isn't what's most important to deconstructionists. Yes, Derrida does make a big deal out of the appearances o...
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
This Alice in Wonderland business may seem like an unlikely choice for Derrida. But remember that Carroll /lewis-carroll/, like Joyce after him, loved word play to no end. Derrida picks up on this...