Jacques Derrida – a short biography
His real name is none other than Jackie Derrida. Derrida was born in 1930 in French Algeria. From his childhood on, he had to face the harsh political reality of the world during the Second World War, and particularly the Vichy laws, until 1943.
Five years later, he entered the hypokhâgne program at the Lycée Bugeaud in Algiers, then left Algeria to settle in Paris. He was rejected twice for the ENS, but finally entered in 1952.
He obtained the agrégation in 1956, and became a reader at Harvard University, where he worked on Husserl.
Married to the psychoanalyst Marguerite Aucouturier, with whom he had two children.
He spent 20 years of his career as a lecturer at the ENS.
1967 was a pivotal year, as La Voix et le phénomène, L’Écriture et la différence, and de la grammatologie were published at the same time. Five years later, he published Marges de la philosophie and La Dissémination.
In 1981, Derrida paid for his political and intellectual commitment: he was taken prisoner in Czechoslovakia after having organized a clandestine seminar.
His desire to present another facet of philosophy took shape with the creation of the Collège international de la philosophie in 1983. ten years later, he presented specters de Karl Marx, and was already giving regular lectures in several countries around the world.
He died in 2004 after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
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