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Hi! All,The news of Jacques DerridaGÇÖs death came as a profound shock. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Frankly I am somewhat awed by some of the nihilist ideas championed by Derrida, Foucoult and others( like Keith Jenkins). One of his followers, Dr. Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivack, is also from my city, Calcutta. Some years back when the University of Cambridge decided to award an honorary D. Litt to him many University scholars protested but Dr. Spivack (I hear) managed to sway the opinion in his favour.

Having said this I have to register my deep respect for Derrida. When he came here a few years back I cancelled all my appointments to hear him and his recorded voice still inspires me greatly.Regards,Dr. Pal.

I share your feelings. Although I did not always appreciate his ideas, I thought he was one of the truly great thinkers about literature and the humanities. He was on my personal list of possible but unlikely Nobel laureates (together with Bob Dylan and Art Spiegelman).Jona