The Death Drive: Philosophy, Literature, Theory

Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Paul Allen Miller

Bloomsbury Academic, Jan 8, 2026 - Literary Criticism - 280 pages

The first collection to provide an overview of the well-known psychoanalytic theory of the death drive in literary and cultural theory, this book features contributions from a range of prominent scholars working in the area of literature, philosophy, and psychanalysis.

After Freud's initial theorization, the death-drive has been re-interpreted by various psychoanalytic thinkers (including Melanie Klein, Jacques Lacan, and Slavoj Žižek), philosophers (Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean Baudrillard), political theorists (Judith Butler), queer theorists (Laurent Berlant, Lee Edelman), and posthumanists (Rosi Braidotti).

This volume brings together some of the leading thinkers and theorists of the death-drive as a psychological, aesthetic, and theoretical principle in literary and cultural theory, examining texts by writers such as Plato, Henry James, and Ezra Pound.

About the author

Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Distinguished Professor of English and Philosophy at Texas A&M University-Victoria, USA. He is editor and founder of the critical theory journal symploke, editor-in-chief of American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute. He is author, editor, or co-editor of 40 books. His recent books include Happiness (2022), Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: An Overview (2023), and Out of Print (2024). Paul Allen Miller is Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina, USA and Visiting Distinguished Professor at Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea. He has held visiting appointments in Bochum, Paris, and Beijing. He has published eleven books, sixteen edited volumes, and many articles; his latest book is Theory Does not Exist: Comparative Ancient and Modern Explorations in Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis and Rhetoric (2024).

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Death Drive: Philosophy, Literature, Theory
• Editors: Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Paul Allen Miller
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026
• ISBN: 1350465674, 9781350465671
• Length: 280 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Psychology / Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis