John McKeane

My research is based in French studies. My original training was in French literature, and I took this in the direction of literary theory (deconstruction, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis). Soon enough this led on to continental philosophy (aesthetics, phenomenology), and I still work in all these areas. I also work on cultural studies – I teach contemporary pop music, have published on education/the baccalaureate, and am interested in plant humanities and alternative agriculture (all in a French setting).

I have also published in translation studies, and maintain an active profile as a translator. My translations include four books, notably Christophe Bident’s ambitious 632-page Maurice Blanchot: a Critical Biography (2018).

I am the author of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: (Un)timely Meditations (2015), and I was co-editor of two collective volumes, Blanchot romantique (2010) and Sarah Kofman and the Relief of Philosophy (2021). Beyond this I have published on French writers and thinkers including Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Emmanuel Levinas, Roland Barthes, and Barbara Cassin,

I am currently working on my second monograph, Sarah Kofman and Ancient Thought: Learning to Live at Last. This is under contract with OUP, and will examine Kofman’s readings of ancient thought via Nietzsche, as well as her interactions with her close collaborators Derrida, Nancy, and Lacoue-Labarthe.