This original book gives a revealing picture of the extraordinarily talented group of men and women who produced Horizon, the foremost literary review of the 1940s. Published monthly in Bloomsbury, Horizon was a cultural beacon during the dark days of the Second World War; it was brilliantly eclectic and fiercely independent. Its principal editor, Cyril Connolly, regarded the pleasures of life and art as inseparable, cultivating his love of literature with the same intensity that characterized his love of good food and fine wine, and beautiful women. He published in Horizon the best and most influential writers of the period, among them W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Edith Sitwell, Dylan Thomas, Evelyn Waugh, and many others. The dedicated circle of friends assisting Connolly included Peter Watson, Horizon's sophisticated publisher who supported the magazine generously with money inherited from his millionaire father, and who - as art editor - introduced readers to important new works by such artists as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Henry Moore. Stephen Spender helped to start the magazine and the staff also included the ambitious Sonia Brownell who eventually married George Orwell, and Lys Lubbock - an engaging, attractive woman who became the business manager, and who lived with Connolly for most of the 1940s. Drawing on interviews and unpublished documents, Michael Shelden provides an intimate account of literary life in a fascinating period of history, skilfully recreating the world of Horizon, and bringing vividly to life the colourful individuals who made the magazine a legend in its time.

With the publication of Specters of Marx in 1993, Jacques Derrida redeemed a longstanding pledge to confront Marx's texts directly and in detail. His characteristically bravura presentation provided a provocative re-reading of the classics in the Western tradition and posed a series of challenges to Marxism. In a timely intervention in one of today's most vital theoretical debates, the contributors to Ghostly Demarcations respond to the distinctive program projected by Specters of Marx. The volume features sympathetic meditations on the relationship between Marxism and deconstruction by Fredric Jameson, Werner Hamacher, Antonio Negri, Warren Montag, and Rastko Mcnik, brief polemical reviews by Terry Eagleton and Pierre Macherey, and sustained political critiques by Tom Lewis and Aijaz Ahmad. The volume concludes with Derrida's reply to his critics in which he sharpens his views about the vexed relationship between Marxism and deconstruction.

This exciting new book makes a major contribution to Continental philosophy, bringing together for the first time the crucial work on politics by two giants of contemporary French philosophy, Jacques Derrida and Alain Badiou. Derrida has long been recognised as one of the most influential and indeed controversial thinkers in contemporary philosophy and Badiou is fast emerging as a central figure in French thought, as well as in Anglo-American philosophy - his magnum opus, Being and Event, and its long-awaited sequel, Logics of Worlds, have confirmed his position as one of the most significant thinkers working in philosophy today. Both philosophers have devoted a substantial amount of their oeuvre to politics and the question of the nature of the political. Here Antonio Calcagno shows how the political views of these two major thinkers diverge and converge, thus providing a comprehensive exposition of their respective political systems. Both Badiou and Derrida give the event a central role in structuring politics and political thinking and Calcagno advances a theory about the relationship between political events and time that can account for both political undecidability and decidability. This book navigates some very intriguing developments in Continental thought and offers a clear and fascinating account of the political theories of two major contemporary thinkers.

Seven eminent authors, all known for their work in deconstruction, address the millennial issue of our “futures,” “promises,” “prophecies,” “projects,” and “possibilities”—including the possibility that there may be no “future” at all. Speculative in every sense, these essays are marked by a common concern for the act of reading as it is practiced in the work of Jacques Derrida. The contributors—Geoffrey Bennington, Paul Davies, Peter Fenves, Werner Hamacher, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Elisabeth Weber, and Jacques Derrida himself—study a range of authors, including Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Leibniz, Marx, Benjamin, Koyré, Arendt, and Lacan. These readings are neither prescriptive, definitive, nor definitional. Each essay seeks out, in the work it studies, those moments that pronounce or propose futures that enable speculation, moments in which the speculator has to make promises. As Derrida says in his essay, “Between lying and acting, acting in politics, manifesting one's own freedom through action, transforming facts, anticipating the future, there is something like an essential affinity. . . . The lie is the future.” Or, in the words of Werner Hamacher, “The futurity of language, its inherent promising capacity, is the ground—but a ground with no solidity whatever—for all present and past experiences, meanings, and figures which could communicate themselves in it.” These essays, though arising from deconstruction, point out the ways in which deconstruction has yet to occur, and they do so by scanning the unattainable horizons marked off by thinkers at the forefront of our modern era.

Rereading Marx through Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, The Promise of Memory attempts to establish a philosophy of liberation. Matthias Fritsch explores how memories of injustice relate to the promises of justice that democratic societies have inherited from the Enlightenment. Focusing on the Marxist promise for a classless society, since it contains a political promise whose institutionalization led to totalitarian outcomes, Fritsch argues that both memories and promises, if taken by themselves, are one-sided and potentially justify violence if they do not reflect on the implicit relation between them. He examines Benjamin's reinterpretation of Marxism after the disappointment of the Russian and German revolutions and Derrida's "messianic" inheritance of Marx after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The book also contributes to contemporary political philosophy by relating Marxist social goals and German critical theory to debates about deconstructive ethics and politics.

Originally published in 1995, Advances was first written by Jacques Derrida as a long foreword to a book by one of his most promising former students, the philosopher Serge Margel’s Le Tombeau du Dieu Artisan (The Tomb of the Craftsman). What Derrida uncovers for us is Margel’s own unique theory of the promise in relation to an an-archic, pre-chronological temporality, in conjunction with Margel’s radical rereading of Plato’s Timaeus. As Derrida states right away, Margel’s reading is a new one, a new reading of the Demiurge. A new promise. A new advance. In this magisterial late essay by Derrida, what the reader soon discovers is in part a conversation with his former student, as well as an opening for a new reflection on our current ecological and political crises that are all the more urgent today where the possibility of giving ourselves death as a human race and the end of the world is now, within an era of climate change, more real than ever. As part of Univocal’s Pharmakon series, this essay, itself published in advance, becomes a brief but powerful light pointing toward Univocal’s forthcoming publication of the translation of Serge Margel’s Le Tombeau du Dieu Artisan. “Once again the Timaeus, of course, but a different Timaeus, a new Demiurge, I promise.”

In the echo of silence that follows a loss, we often find ourselves standing on the precipice of an immense void, staring into the depths of grief. This void, though seemingly desolate and forbidding, is the landscape of our healing, a silent testament to the resilience of the human spirit. "Verses from the Void: Poetry for the Mourning Soul" is a journey through this terrain, an exploration of the multifaceted emotions and experiences we encounter when faced with the profound impact of loss. Each chapter in this collection is a beacon of light, illuminating a specific stage of the grieving process. We begin with "Early Grief," a poignant exploration of the initial shock and heartbreak that accompanies loss. The poems in this section serve as raw, candid depictions of the very first steps we take into the labyrinth of grief. "Memories and Nostalgia" and "The Void Whispers" mark the subsequent stages, delving into the heartrending pull of the past and the aching loneliness that seeps into the corners of our existence. These poems evoke images of cherished moments and the daunting silence that reverberates in their absence, respectively. Moving further into the labyrinth, we are met with "Anger and Betrayal" and "Depression and Despair," where the verses embody the turbulence of rage and the deep pits of sorrow. These are the dark valleys of our grief journey, where emotions, raw and unfiltered, rise like tidal waves. "Longing and Yearning" touches upon the deep-rooted desire for what once was, the yearning for the presence of the departed. Each verse echoes with the quiet whispers of longing, like a tender, heartfelt lament for the familiar, now lost. As we navigate the complexity of these emotions, we slowly tread into the realms of "Acceptance and Peace," a stage where the realization of loss transforms into a tranquil understanding. The verses here speak of a farewell - not a final goodbye, but an acceptance of a different form of presence, a continuation of love beyond the physical realm. The final chapter, "Resilience and Healing," represents the dawn breaking on the horizon of our journey. It is a testament to the indomitable human spirit that, even in the face of unimaginable loss, finds the strength to heal and grow. These poems speak of hope and renewal, of finding light in the heart of darkness. "Verses from the Void: Poetry for the Mourning Soul" is more than a collection of poems; it is a compassionate companion for those navigating the winding path of grief. It is an acknowledgement of the pain, a celebration of the memories, and ultimately, a beacon of hope towards healing and reconciliation. It is my sincere hope that these verses bring solace to your mourning soul, reminding you that even in the darkest nights, the dawn awaits.