Derrida's work is part of the attempts to overcome the "logocentric" boundaries of Western philosophy. For Derrida, going beyond philosophy does not mean "turning one's back on it (which usually results in poor philosophy). It means reading philosophers in a certain way." The essays contained in "Writing and Difference" are examples of a new perspective-opening reading of texts by Descartes, Hegel, Freud, Husserl, Heidegger, Bataille, Foucault, Artaud, and others. Contents: Force and Signification, Cogito and the History of Madness, Edmond Jabes and the Question of the Book, Violence and Metaphysics, Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas, "Genesis and Structure" and Phenomenology, The Soufflierte Speech, Freud and the Scene of Writing, The Theater of Cruelty and the Closure of Representation.