David Farrell Krell - Derrida and Our Animal Others: Derrida’s Final Seminar, the Beast and the Sovereign

Derrida and Our Animal Others

Studies in Continental Thought

EDITOR

JOHN SALLIS

CONSULTING EDITORS

Robert Bernasconi

Rudolf Bernet

John D. Caputo

David Carr

Edward S. Casey

Hubert L. Dreyfus

Don Ihde

David Farrell Krell

Lenore Langsdorf

Alphonso Lingis

William L. McBride

J. N. Mohanty

Mary Rawlinson

Tom Rockmore

Calvin O. Schrag

Reiner Schrmann

Charles E. Scott

Thomas Sheehan

Robert Sokolowski

Bruce W. Wilshire

David Wood

DERRIDAS FINAL SEMINAR,
THE BEAST AND THE SOVEREIGN

David Farrell Krell

This book is a publication of

Indiana University Press

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2013 by David Farrell Krell

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krell, David Farrell.

Derrida and our animal others : Derridas final seminar, The beast and the sovereign / David Farrell Krell.

pages cm. (Studies in Continental thought)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-253-00924-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-253-00933-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-253-00945-6 (electronic book) 1. Derrida, Jacques. 2. Philosophy, French20th century. 3. Power (Social sciences)Philosophy. 4. Sovereignty. 5. Responsibility. 6. Animals (Philosophy) I. Title.

B2430.D484K73 2013

194dc23

2013001956

1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13

In memory of jd

and for my esteemed colleagues and dear friends dawne mccance and michael naas

Der Gerechte ist der Frsprech der Kreatur und zugleich ihre hchste Verkrperung.

(The just person is the advocate of all living beings and at the same time their supreme embodiment.)

Walter Benjamin, Der Erzhler XVII

Contents

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following colleagues and publishers for their reception of earlier versions of these chapters: John Sallis and James Risser of Research in Phenomenology for , which in another form appears in his collection, Heidegger and Language, published by Indiana University Press in 2012. My thanks also to Michael Naas and Dawne McCance for their dependable wisdom and constant help. Dawne McCances fine volume, Critical Animal Studies: An Introduction, which I was able to read in typescript, introduced me to the field of critical animal studies and enabled me to rethink many issues surrounding Derrida and the problem of lifedeath in humans and other animals. I had the opportunity to read an early manuscript of Michael Naass forthcoming book, The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments: Jacques Derridas Final Seminar, to be published by Fordham University Press as soon as Michael finishes it. I will cite McCances book as CAS and Naass as EW, both of them by chapter number, in the hope that the references can be locatedbut in any case readers of this book will want to read those two books from beginning to end. My thanks to Len Lawlor, Dawne McCance, and Helmbrecht Breinig, who read various versions of the manuscript and greatly improved it, and to Dee Mortensen and her staff at Indiana University Press, especially Sarah Eileen Jacobi, Marvin Keenan, and freelancer Carol Kennedy, for their generous support. Once again I am indebted to my designer, David Matthew Krell. Finally, my gratitude to Marlonbrando, the feral, formidable, and faithful.

D. F. K.

Strobelhtte, St. Ulrich

Abbreviations

Works by Derrida

Sminaire: La bte et le souverain. Vol. 1: 20012002. Ed. Michel Lisse, Marie-Louise Mallet, and Genette Michaud. Paris: Galile, 2008. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington as The Beast and the Sovereign, vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Cited by volume and page of the French edition.

Sminaire: La bte et le souverain. Vol. 2: 20022003. Ed. Michel Lisse, Marie-Louise Mallet, and Genette Michaud. Paris: Galile, 2010. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington as The Beast and the Sovereign, vol. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Cited by volume and page of the French edition.