Derek Attridge is Professor of English at the University of York, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rutgers University in the United States. His interests centre on the language of literature, but radiate in many different directions. He has published a number of articles and books on aspects of literary theory, many of them reflecting his long association with the philosopher Jacques Derrida, a selection of whose work he has edited. His most recent theoretical study, The Singularity of Literature, raises the question of the distinctiveness of literature as a linguistic and social practice, and argues that a crucial element is the response to otherness that characterises both the writing of an inventive literary work and the reading of it as literature. This book is also informed by recent developments in ethics arising from the writings of Emmanuel Levinas.

Professor Attridge was born in South Africa, where he first attended university, and some of his recent work is concerned with South African literature, including an anthology of critical essays co-edited with Rosemary Jolly and a study of the novels of J. M. Coetzee (a study which also reflects his interest in questions of ethics and responsibility as they apply to literature). He is also well-known as a Joyce scholar: his publications on Joyce include a book (Joyce Effects), half of another book (Peculiar Language), and four edited or co-edited volumes on Joyce, including The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. A final interest is poetic form, and he has published several books on questions of rhythm in poetry. He is on the editorial boards of the James Joyce Quarterly, The Journal of Narrative Theory, Modern Fiction Studies, and Language and Literature.