In addition to deconstruction, I have liked Derrida's work on nationalism, national symbols and languages as they are more current and relevant in today's world. Although the force of nationalism has been a major one shaping twentieth century society, resulting in two very destructive world wars, the Cold War, today's America, it has been surprisingly ignored by analysts and particularly, modern philosophers. In India, it has shown up as a problem in the past decade. Perhaps Tagore's "Nationalism" is one of the finest general books on the subject and mostly remains current even after 80 years of publication, with typical Tagorean lucidity of thought and writing and a felicitous ability to explain the inherent instability of mostly non-existent national identities, something that Derrida also clarifies so well. posted by Dumaketu Saturday, October 29, 2005 @ 11:43 AM 14 comments
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