Derrida and Queer Theory

Book excerpt: Coming from behind (derrière)-how else to describe a volume called "Derrida and Queer Theory"? - as if arriving late to the party, or, indeed, after the party is already over. After all, we already have Deleuze and Queer Theory and, of course, Saint Foucault. And judging by Annamarie Jagose's Queer Theory: An Introduction, in which there is not a single mention of "Derrida" (or "deconstruction") - even in the sub-chapter titled "The Post-Structuralist Context of Queer" - one would think that Derrida was not only late to the party, but was never there at all. This untimely volume, then, with wide-ranging essays from key thinkers in the field, addresses, among other things, what could be called the disavowed debt to "Derrida" in canonical "queer theory." TABLE OF CONTENTS // The Gift from (of the) "Behind" (Derrière): Intro-extro-duction - Christian Hite Preposturous Preface: Derrida and Queer Discourse - J. Hillis Miller Impossible Uncanniness: Deconstruction and Queer Theory - Nicholas Royle No Kingdom of the Queer - Calvin Thomas Derrida and the Question of "Woman" - Sarah Dillon Les chats de Derrida - Carla Freccero Derrida's Queer Root(s) - Jarrod Hayes Deco-pervo-struction - Èamonn Dunne A Man For All Seasons: Derrida-cum-"Queer Theory," or the Limits of "Performativity" - Alexander García Düttmann "Practical Deconstruction" A Note on Some Notes by Judith Butler - Martin McQuillan Performing Friendship - Linnell Secomb Postface: Just Queer - Geoffrey Bennington Appendix: Supreme Court (1988) - David Wills