Jacques Derrida, Glas

Jacques Derrida is the most important philosopher of the movement usually called deconstruction, often associated with poststructuralism. Derrida, famous for a sustained interrogation of both the content and the form of Western philosophical discourse (and Western culture more generally). Derrida's philosophical project sought to undermine and expose the underlying binary oppositions of Western thought including speech/writing, presence/absence – and (why not?) art/philosophy. Derrida's work has often been understood to walk the line between literary and theoretical expression and analysis.

Derrida's texts often take unusual and inventive forms, with his book Glas often understood as the most audacious attempt, which, through the use of visual layout in columns, juxtaposed an analysis of Hegelian philosophy with avant-garde pkaywright Jean Genet's autobiographical works. It apparently drew its textual form from Genet's  Ce qui est resté d'un Rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés bien réguliers, et foutu aux chiottes ("What Remains of a Rembrandt Torn Into Four Equal Pieces and Flushed Down the Toilet").

The left hand column is about Hegel and the right hand about Genet. Each column has inset into it a series of further quotations that are juxtaposed with Derrida's own text.