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Clearing Study Experience Research Collaborate About us

Professor Simon Wortham

Kingston School of Art
Department of Humanities
School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Penrhyn Road

Pro Vice-Chancellor Research, Kingston University

[email protected]

Professor

About

After completing my DPhil at the University of Sussex in 1993, my research has concentrated on the connections between continental philosophy, literary theory and a variety of political and psychoanalytic texts.

I have published books on the philosophical question of the university institution, on the question of sleep as a complex and surprisingly persistent topic within the history of philosophy, on the European philosophical tradition's relationship to problems of pain and suffering, on the complicated interplay between psychoanalytic and political ideas of resistance; and the writings of Jacques Derrida. My last academic monograph explored the legacy of philosophical discourses of optimism and pessimism in order to assess the limits and possibilities of contemporary political hope. Since then, I have written a trilogy of novels published by Ma Bibliotheque, the first appearing in 2020. My new book, Reading Robert Walser: Criticism, Creativity, Correspondence, includes a novella based on the author's correspondence as well as chapters on the question of address, both in epistolary writing and creative performances. The book will be published by UCL Press in 2025.

While at Kingston, I have supervised PhDs on topics as varied as psychoanalysis, trauma, and creative writing; resistance, revolution, and fascism; Kantianism and speculative realism; and deconstruction and performativity.

Qualifications

DPhil, Sussex University
MA Critical Theory, Sussex University
BA English Literature, Sussex University

Domains

Publications

Fascist mania

Wortham, Simon, 2026, Critical Inquiry, Published

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Manic joy: Irmgard Keun and the politics of life under/over fascism

Wortham, Simon, 2026, Minor Literature[s], Published

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Walser on Walser

Wortham, Simon, 2023, Minor Literature[s], Published

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Caught on the hop: politico-philosophical writing of the 'leap'

Wortham, Simon, 2022, Paragraph (45), 3 pp 316-335, Published

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To give the differend its due: damages/distress

Wortham, Simon, 2022, Philosophy Today (66), 2 pp 307-326, Published

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Antinomies of the super-ego: Etienne Balibar and the question of the psycho-political

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2017, Philosophy Today (61), 4 pp 863-876, Published

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What is a complex?

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2017, Journal for Cultural Research (21), 2 pp 127-139, Published

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Fleeced

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2016, Paragraph (39), 2 pp 149-164, Published

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Joking apart

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2014, Clinical Science (36), 2 pp 274-276, Published

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The pig's head. Book review of: 'Prolegomena to any future materialism, Volume 1: The outcome of contemporary French philosophy' by Adrian Johnston

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2014, Radical Philosophy, 187 pp 52-54, Published

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Education should be a right for all

Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian, Wilson, Scott, Haywood, Peter, Higginbottom, Andrew, Ichijo, Atsuko, Isaac, Marina, Jensen, Meg, Kayyali, Reem, Kettyle, Ann, Lambrou, Marina, Latimer, Amanda, Linton, Marisa, Lipsedge, Karen, Malabou, Catherine, O Maoilearca, John, McQuillan, Martin, Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, O'Brien, Catherine, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric and Auerbach, Paul, 2014, The Guardian, Published

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Survival of cruelty

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2013, The Southern Journal of Philosophy (51), S1 pp 126-141, Published

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Time of debt: on the Nietzschean origins of Lazzarato's indebted man

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2013, Radical Philosophy, 180 pp 35-43, Published

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What we owe to retroactivity: the origin and future of debt

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2013, Postmodern Culture (23), 3, Published

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Afterword: Impossible Divisions

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2013, SAQ: South Atlantic Quarterly (112), 1 pp 163-170, Published

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L'Arret de mort, insomnia, dreaming, sleep: Derrida, Blanchot, Levinas

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2012, Derrida Today (5), 1 pp 111-139, Published

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'By force of love ... something should happen to God, and someone happen to him': the other's other(s) in Derrida

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2011, Textual Practice (25), 6 pp 1051-1073, Published

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Resistances - after Derrida after Freud

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2011, Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature (44), 4 pp 51-61, Published

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Infant criticism: Agamben's potential

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2011, Paragraph (34), 1 pp 137-151, Published

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The chance of thinking - conjurations

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2011, Parallax (17), 1 pp 65-77, Published

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"The discipline of the question": rereading Derrida's "Violence and metaphysics"

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2010, Derrida Today (3), 1 pp 137-150, Published

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Anonymity writing pedagogy: Beckett, Descartes, Derrida

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2009, Symploke (16), 1-2 pp 93-105, Published

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Law of friendship: Agamben and Derrida

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2007, New Formations (62) pp 89-105, Published

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Counter introduction

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2007, Textual Practice (21), 2 pp 213-229, Published

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Editorial

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2007, Textual Practice (21), 2 pp 203-211, Published

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'The fidelity of a guardian': the 'double keeping' of Jacques Derrida

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2006, Parallax (12), 3 pp 85-98, Published

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Unheard of

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2006, Textual Practice (20), 1 pp 121-140, Published

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Auditing Derrida

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2004, Parallax (10), 2 pp 3-18, Published

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The claim of the humanities: a dialogue between Simon Morgan Wortham and Christopher Fynsk

Morgan Wortham, Simon and Fynsk, Christopher, 2004, Culture Machine, Published

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Obsessional writing

Wortham, Simon Morgan, 2004, Textual Practice (18), 1 pp 47-63, Published

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Responding: a discussion with Samuel Weber

Wortham, Simon Morgan and Hall, Gary, 2002, South Atlantic Quarterly (101), 3 pp 695-724, Published

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Responding: a discussion with Samuel Weber

Weber, Samuel, Morgan Wortham, Simon and Hall, Gary, 2001, Culture Machine, Published

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Teaching deconstruction: giving, taking, leaving, belonging, and the remains of the university

Morgan Wortham, Simon, 2001, Diacritics: a review of contemporary criticism (31), 3 pp 89-107, Published

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"To come walking": reinterpreting the institution and the work of Samuel Weber

Wortham, Simon, 2001, Cultural Critique: an international journal of cultural studies (48), 1 pp 164-199, Published

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Van Gogh's shoes, or, does the university have two left feet?

Wortham, Simon, 1999, Culture Machine (1), Published

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Surviving theory, "as if I[t] were dead": Derrida and interdisciplinarity

Wortham, Simon, 1998, Eurasip Journal on Advances in Signal Processing (34) pp 152-166, Published

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Bringing criticism to account: economy, exchange and cultural theory

Wortham, Simon, 1997, Economy and Society (26), 3 pp 400-418, Published

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Multiple submissions and little scrolls of parchment: censorship, knowledge, and the academy

Wortham, Simon, 1997, New Literary History (28), 3 pp 501-523, Published

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Sovereign counterfeits: the trial of the Pyx

Wortham, Simon, 1996, Renaissance Quarterly (49), 2 pp 334-359, Published

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The Glasse of majesty: reflections on new historicism and cultural materialism

Wortham, Simon, 1996, Angelaki (2), 2 pp 47-57, Published

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Reading Robert Walser: criticism, creativity, correspondence

Wortham, Simon (2025). London, U.K.: (UCL Press) [Published]

Robert Walser and the politics of neglect

Wortham, Simon (2025). Cham, Switzerland: [Published]

Berlin W, or, méssalliance: posthumous fragments

Wortham, Simon (2022). London, U.K.: [Published]

Early mass: a novel by Peter Müller

Wortham, Simon (2021). London, U.K.: [Published]

The Small

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2020). London, U.K.: [Published]

Hope: the politics of optimism

Wortham, Simon (2019). London, U.K.: [Published]

Resistance and psychoanalysis: impossible divisions

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2017). Edinburgh, U.K.: [Published]

Samuel Weber: acts of reading

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2017). Abingdon, U.K.: (Routledge) [Published]

Desire in ashes: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, philosophy

(2016). London, U.K.: (Bloomsbury Academic) [Published]

Modern Thought in Pain: Philosophy, Politics, Psychoanalysis

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2014). Edinburgh, U.K.: (Edinburgh University Press) [Published]

The poetics of sleep: from Aristotle to Nancy

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2013). London, U.K.: [Published]

The Derrida Dictionary

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2010). London, U.K.: (Continuum) [Published]

Derrida: writing events

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2008). London, U.K.: (Continuum) [Published]

Encountering Derrida: legacies and futures of deconstruction

(2007). London: (Continuum) [Published]

Experimenting: essays with Samuel Weber

(2007). New York: [Published]

Counter-institutions: Jacques Derrida and the question of the university

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2006). New York: (Fordham University Press) [Published]

Rethinking the university: leverage and deconstruction

Wortham, Simon (1999). Manchester, U.K.: [Published]

In debt to Derrida: deconstruction and monetary criticism

Wortham, Simon (2024). In: Tinguely, Joseph J., (eds.), Cham, Switzerland: pp 685-700 [Published]

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Derrida, Jacques (1930-2004)

Wortham, Simon (2021). [Published]

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Critiquing poststructuralism: the recent politics of French thought

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2019). In: Goh, Irving, (eds.), New York, NY: pp 111-130 [Published]

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Deconstruction: politics, ethics, aesthetics

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2018). In: Stocker, Barry, Mack, Michael, (eds.), London: pp 407-425 [Published]

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'There shall be no mourning'

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2016). In: Morgan Wortham, Simon, Alfano, Chiara, (eds.), London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic pp 43-71 [Published]

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The Archive, The Event, and the Impression

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2014). In: Mays, Sas, (eds.), London, U.K.: Routledge pp 185-201 [Published]

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Archive-Abilities

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2013). In: Senatore, Mauro, (eds.), London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic [Published]

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Introduction

Weiner, Allison and Morgan Wortham, Simon (2007). In: Weiner, Allison, Morgan Wortham, Simon, (eds.), London: Continuum pp 1-9 [Published]

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Introduction: experimenting

Morgan Wortham, Simon and Hall, Gary (2007). In: Morgan Wortham, Simon, Hall, Gary, (eds.), New York: pp 1-12 [Published]

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Of debts, dreams and jokes: or, Weberian theatricality

Wortham, Simon Morgan and Hall, Gary (2007). In: Morgan Wortham, Simon, Hall, Gary, (eds.), New York: pp 44-84 [Published]

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Deconstruction (1966)

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2006). In: Clark, Robert, (eds.), Norwich, U.K.: [Published]

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Giorgio Agamben (1942-)

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2006). In: Clark, Robert, (eds.), Norwich, U.K.: [Published]

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The event

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2006). In: Clark, Robert, (eds.), Norwich, U.K.: [Published]

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Anthologizing Derrida

Morgan Wortham, Simon (2004). In: Di Leo, Jeffrey R., (eds.), Lincoln, U.S.: pp 326-341 [Published]

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Censorship and the institution of knowledge in Bacon's New Atlantis

Wortham, Simon (2002). In: Price, Bronwen, (eds.), Manchester: Manchester University Press pp 180-198 [Published]

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"Pairt of my taill is yet untolde": James VI and I, the pheonix, and the royal gift

Wortham, Simon (2002). In: Fischlin, Daniel, Fortier, Mark, (eds.), Detroit, U.S.: pp 182-204 [Published]

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