This superb collection of hitherto uncollected (and partly untranslated) essays by Werner Hamacher entangles philosophical rigour and philological acuity in unsurpassed and uncompromising ways, by laying bare the abysmal character of linguistic experience, on the brink of which every single word remains exposed, as Friedrich Hölderlin reminds: Vom Abgrund nemlich haben / Wir angefangen: For from the abyss we / Have begun.

Thomas Schestag, Professor of German Studies, Brown University

This dazzling collection of truly original essays articulates the mutual imbrication of language, art, philosophy and politics. Hamacher’s rigorous and uncompromising work on and with language, tracing movements of resistance, withdrawal and displacement, challenges the dominance of meaning and intentionality, and even the unity, of language.

Susan Bernstein, Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies, Brown University