The World after the End of the World

<p><b>Examines themes of loss and mourning in the late work of Derrida.</b></p><p>In this book Kas Saghafi argues that the notion of the end the world in Derrida's late work is not a theological or cosmological matter but a meditation on mourning and the death of the other. He examines this and several other tightly knit motifs in Derrida's work: mourning survival the phantasm the event and most significantly the term <i>salut</i> which in French means at once greeting and salvation. An underlying concern of <i>The World after the End of the World</i> is whether a discourse on <i>salut</i> (saving being saved and salvation) can be dissociated from discourse on religion. Saghafi compares Derrida's thought along these lines with similar concerns of Jean-Luc Nancy's. Combining analysis of these themes with reflections on personal loss this book maintains that for Derrida salutation greeting and welcoming is resistant to the economy of salvation. This resistance calls for what Derrida refers to as a spectro-poetics devoted to and assigned to the other's singularity.</p>