Sean Gaston

Sean Gaston is a Reader in English. He teaches courses on eighteenth and early nineteenth century literature and also lectures on literature and the history of philosophy. He studied at the University of Melbourne and was a recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Melbourne.

Research Overview

Sean Gaston gained a B. A. in English and History (1989) and a B. A. (Hons.) in English (1990) at the University of Melbourne, Australia, before going on to complete a M. A. (1994) and a PhD (1999).
After an early interest in classical rhetoric and historiography, his research has focused on the relationship between the eighteenth century and contemporary thought. From undergraduate work on Wordsworth and Blake, he wrote his M. A. on Derrida’s reading of Hegel. His doctoral thesis examined concepts of disinterest, imagination and spectacle in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain.
His research since 2000 has focused on eighteenth century literary studies, Jacques Derrida and the history of philosophy.
His interest in eighteenth century studies has included: discourses of disinterest in Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake and De Quincey; the necessary fictions of imprudence in the eighteenth century novel; the relation between ideas of custom and sympathy in the eighteenth century; and the fables of pity in Rousseau and Mandeville. Recent research includes work on Isaac D’Israeli, literary history and the literary character.
In his work on Derrida, he has been particularly interested in Derrida’s readings of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Blanchot and Lévinas.
From 2005 to 2009, he published four monographs on the work of Derrida examining: questions of disinterest as an interruption of self-interest (2005), mourning and gaps that move (2006), palintropes in philosophy, literature and history (2007) and the chance of chance encounters in the relation between literature and war (2009). In 2011, he co-edited, introduced and contributed to a collection of articles on Derrida’s Of Grammatology (2011).
Having recently completed a long research project in the history of philosophy, The Concept of World from Kant to Derrida, he is now working on nineteenth century literary studies focusing on George Eliot.

Teaching Activity

At Brunel, Sean teaches the Level Two module on Romanticism and Revolution and the Level Three module on Jane Austen and her Novels. He also co-teaches the year long Level Three module, Critical Perspectives, on the relationship between literature and philosophy from Plato to the present day.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS
1. The Concept of World from Kant to Derrida (London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2013).

2. Reading Derrida’s Of Grammatology, co-edited with Ian Maclachlan (London and New York: Continuum, 2011).

3. Derrida, Literature and War: Absence and the Chance of Meeting (London and New York: Continuum, 2009).


4. Starting With Derrida: Plato, Aristotle and Hegel 
(London and New York: Continuum, 2007; Portuguese translation, Introduçào Derrida, trans. Vinicius Duarte Figueira, Penso 2012).

5. The Impossible Mourning of Jacques Derrida (London and New York: Continuum 2006).

6. Derrida and Disinterest 
(London and New York: Continuum, 2005; revised paperback, 2006).

ARTICLES
7. ‘Derrida and the Eco-Polemicists’, Paragraph 36.3 (2013)

8. ‘Isaac D’Israeli and the Invention of the Literary Character’, Textual Practice 27.4 (2013)

9. ‘The Fables of Pity: Rousseau, Mandeville and the Animal-Fable’, Derrida Today 5.1 (2012): 21-38.

10. ‘Derrida and the End of the World’, New Literary History 42.3 (2011): 499-517.


11. ‘Conrad and the Asymmetrical Duel: Thoughts for the Times on War and Death’, Angelaki 15.2 (2010): 39-53.


12. ‘The Impossibility of Sympathy’, The Eighteenth Century 51.1-2 (2010): 129-52.


13. ‘No Biography: Shakespeare Author’, in Shakespeare and his Authors: Studies in the Authorship Question, ed. William Leahy (London: Continuum 2010), 91-103.


14. ‘War and the Chances of Literature’, Oxford Literary Review 31.2 (2009): 211-30.

15. ‘In the Middle’, Parrhesia 6 (2009): 62-72.

16. ‘The Fiction of Imprudence’, Philological Quarterly 87.3-4 (2008): 335-58.


17. '(Not) Meeting Without Name', Symploke 16.2 (2008): 107-25.

18. ‘A Palintropic Genealogy of the Diaphanous Exactitude of Pe(n)ser’, Derrida Today 1.2 (2008): 212-28.

19. 'Derrida and the History of Literature', Textual Practice 21. 2 (2007): 313-34.

20. ‘Lévinas and the Hiding of the Face of God’, Mattoid 55 (2006): 97-100. 

21. ‘Tradition and Exile: Zweig, Momigliano and Berlin’, Jewish Culture and History 8. 1 (2006): 1-12.

22. ‘Une accélération affolante’, Oxford Literary Review 25 (2003): 361-384. 

23. ‘Romanticism and the Spectres of Disinterest’, European Romantic Review 15 (2004): 113-129.

24. ‘Lévinas, Disinterest and Enthusiasm’, Literature and Theology 17 (2003), 47-61.

25. ‘Derrida and the Ruins of Disinterest’, Angelaki 7.3 (2002), 105-118. 

26. ‘Elocutio and Vituperatio: a Rhetorical Context to Thomas More’s A Letter to a Monk and the Responsio ad Lutherum’, in A World Explored: Essays in Honour of Laurie Gardiner, ed. Anne Gilmour-Bryson (Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 1993), 158-68.

27. ‘Thanksgiving 1621-1987: Possession of the American’, Ormond Papers 4 (1987), 42-50.

OTHER WORKS

28. ‘A Fragment of the Cacophony: Leibniz, Nietzsche and Blanchot’, Inky Needles [January 2013] http://inkyneedles.com

29. ‘An Open Wound’, in Kafka’s Wound: A Digital Essay by Will Self (London Review of Books 2012) http://thespace.lrb.co.uk/article/an-open-wound

30. ‘Derrida’s Of Grammatology’, in The Literary Encyclopaedia, www.litencyc.com [September 2011]

31. ‘Trasfigurazione e tradizone'/'Transfiguration and Tradition’, in William Balthazar Rose, Sinfonia di Cappelli (Sansepolcro: Edizioni La Logia, 2007), 15-18.

32. ‘Hôtel du Pont des Arts’, Succour 5 (Spring/Summer 2007):13-19.

33. ‘Footnotes’, Succour 4 (October 2006): 15-20

34. ‘The Furniture is Talking’, Succour 3 (Summer 2006): 74.

35. ‘Dead Men Making Trouble’, BlackJelly 4 (2005) www.blackjelly.com

36.  ‘Strange Farm’, Succour 2 (October 2005): 4-8

37. ‘Oxford 1942’, Succour (Sussex Creative and Critical Writers) 1 (April 2005): 26-33.

38. ‘Aspen’, in A Body of Evidence, ed. Brian Edwards (Melbourne: Deakin University Press, 2004), 151-53.

39. ‘Living “Lord of the Flies” at Strange Farm’, Communities 123 (2004): 15-18.

40. ‘Lake Zurich’, in The Funhouse Collection, ed. Brian Edwards (Melbourne: Deakin University Press, 2003), 53-6.

41. ‘Strange Farm’, in The Funhouse Collection, ed. Brian Edwards (Melbourne: Deakin University Press, 2003), 57-60.

42. ‘Murder in the Rue St. Jacques’, in The Funhouse Collection, ed. Brian Edwards (Melbourne: Deakin University Press, 2003), 50-2.

43. ‘In the community of expulsion: Stefan Zweig’, Jewish Chronicle - Literary Supplement (6955) August 2002: vi.

TRANSLATIONS

44. ‘On Individualism’, translation of an article by Dominique Lecourt, Angelaki 9.3 (2004): 11-16.

45. ‘Technics of Decision’, introduction to and translation of an interview by Peter Hallward with Bernard Stiegler, Angelaki 8.2 (2003), 151-68.

REVIEWS

46. Review of Nicholas Royle, In Memory of Jacques Derrida (2009), French Studies 63.4 (2009): 499.

47. Review of Geoffrey Bennington, Other Analyses: Reading Philosophy (2004) and Deconstruction Is Not What You Think (2005), Derrida Today 2. 1 (2009): 124-30.

48. Review of Derrida: Negotiating the Legacy (Edinburgh, 2007), Philosophy in Review June 2008

49. Review of Simon Morgan-Wortham’s Counter-Institutions: Jacques Derrida and the Question of the University (Fordham, 2006), Textual Practice 21. 1 (2007): 170-79.
 

 

 

Publications

Journal Papers

(2013) Gaston, S., Derrida and the Eco-Polemicists, Paragraph: a journal of modern critical theory 36 (3)

(2012) Gaston, S., The Fables of Pity: Rousseau, Mandeville and the Animal-Fable, Derrida Today 5 (1)

(2011) Gaston, S., Derrida and the End of the World, New Literary History: a journal of theory and interpretation 42 (3) : 499- 517

(2010) Gaston, S., The impossibility of sympathy, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 51 (1-2) : 129- 152

(2010) Gaston, S., Conrad and the asymmetrical duel: thoughts for the times on war and death, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 15 (2) : 39- 53

(2009) Gaston, S., Book review on Other Analyses: Reading Philosophy and Deconstruction Is Not What You Think by Geoffrey Bennington, Derrida Today 2 (1) : 124- 130

(2009) Gaston, S., Book review on In memory of Jacques Derrida by Nicholas Royle, published in Edinburgh by the University of Edinburgh Press, French Studies 63 (4) : 499-

(2009) Gaston, S., In the middle, Parrhesia: a journal of critical philosophy (6) : 62- 72

(2009) Gaston, S., War and the chances of literature, Oxford Literary Review 31 (2) : 211- 230

(2008) Gaston, S., The fiction of imprudence, Philological Quarterly 87 (3-4) : 335- 358

(2008) Gaston, S., (Not) meeting without name, Symplokē 16 (1-2) : 107- 125

(2008) Gaston, S., A palintropic geneaology of the diaphonous exactitude of Pe(n)ser, Derrida Today 1 (2) : 212- 228 Download publication

(2007) Gaston, S., Book review on Counter-institutions: Jacques Derrida and the question of the university, published in New York by Fordham University Press, Textual Practice 21 (1) : 170- 179

(2007) Gaston, S., Derrida and the history -­ of literature, Textual Practice 21 (2) : 313- 334

(2006) Gaston, S., Exile and Tradition: Zweig by Momigliano and Berlin, Jewish Culture and History 8 (1)

(2004) Gaston, S., Romanticism and the spectres of disinterest, European Romantic Review 15 (1) : 113- 129 Download publication

(2003) Gaston, S., Une accélération affolante, Oxford Literary Review 25 361- 384

(2003) Gaston, S., Lévinas, disinterest and enthusiasm, Literature & Theology 17 (1) : 407- 421 Download publication

(2002) Gaston, S., Derrida and the ruins of disinterest, Angelaki 7 (3) : 105- 118 Download publication

Book Chapters

(2010) Gaston, S., No biography: Shakespeare, author. In: Leahy, W. ed. Shakespeare and His Authors: Critical Perspectives on the Authorship Question. London and New York : Continuum 91- 103

Books

(2013) Gaston, S., The Concept of World from Kant to Derrida. Rowman and Littlefield International

(2011) Gaston, S., Introducao Derrida. Penso

(2011) Gaston, S. and Maclachlan, I., Reading Derrida's Of Grammatology. Continuum

(2009) Gaston, S., Derrida, literature and war: absence and the chance of meeting. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd

(2008) Gaston, S., Starting with Derrida. Continuum

(2006) Gaston, S., The impossible mourning of Jacques Derrida. London: Continuum

(2005) Gaston, S., Derrida and disinterest. London : Continuum