Editing Jacques Derrida (section)

====Dispute with Richard Wolin and the ''NYRB''====
[[Richard Wolin]] has argued since 1991 that Derrida's work, as well as that of Derrida's major inspirations (e.g., Bataille, Blanchot, Levinas, Heidegger, Nietzsche), leads to a corrosive [[nihilism]]. For example, Wolin argues that the "deconstructive gesture of overturning and reinscription ends up by threatening to efface many of the essential differences between Nazism and non-Nazism".<ref name="Wolin93Preface">Richard Wolin, Preface to the MIT press edition: Note on a missing text. In R. Wolin (ed.) ''The Heidegger Controversy: A Critical Reader''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1993, p. xiii. {{ISBN|0-262-73101-0}}.</ref>

In 1991, when Wolin published a Derrida interview on Heidegger in the first edition of ''The Heidegger Controversy'', Derrida argued that the interview was an intentionally malicious mistranslation, which was "demonstrably execrable" and "weak, simplistic, and compulsively aggressive". As French law requires the consent of an author to translations and this consent was not given, Derrida insisted that the interview not appear in any subsequent editions or reprints. Columbia University Press subsequently refused to offer reprints or new editions. Later editions of ''The Heidegger Controversy'' by MIT Press also omitted the Derrida interview. The matter achieved public exposure owing to a friendly review of Wolin's book by the Heideggerian scholar [[Thomas Sheehan (academic)|Thomas Sheehan]] that appeared in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', in which Sheehan characterised Derrida's protests as an imposition of censorship. It was followed by an exchange of letters.<ref name="NYRBLetters">{{cite magazine |author=Thomas Sheehan |date=February 11, 1993 |title='L'affaire Derrida' |magazine=The New York Review |department=Letters |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2658}} and {{cite magazine |author=Helene Cixous |display-authors=etal |date=April 22, 1993 |title='L'Affaire Derrida': Yet Another Exchange |magazine=The New York Review |department=Letters |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2591}}</ref> Derrida in turn responded to Sheehan and Wolin, in "The Work of Intellectuals and the Press (The Bad Example: How the New York Review of Books and Company do Business)", which was published in the book ''[[Points...]]''.<ref name="DerridaOnNYRB">Derrida, "The Work of Intellectuals and the Press (The Bad Example: How the New York Review of Books and Company do Business)", published in the book ''[[Points...]]'' (1995; see the footnote about {{ISBN|0-226-14314-7}}, [[Jacques Derrida bibliography|here]]) (see also the [1992] French version ''[[Points de suspension: entretiens]]'' ({{ISBN|0-8047-2488-1}}) [[Jacques Derrida bibliography|there]]).</ref>

Twenty-four academics, belonging to different schools and groups – often in disagreement with each other and with deconstruction – signed a letter addressed to ''The New York Review of Books'', in which they expressed their indignation for the magazine's behaviour as well as that of Sheenan and Wolin.<ref name="PointsP434">''Points'', p. 434.</ref>