Jonathan Basile
Comparative Literature Ph.D., Librarian of Babel
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“Natural Lection works beyond supposed disciplinary boundaries regarding a distinction that has haunted philosophy since its origins: nature and culture. With clear arguments and rich examples, Jonathan Basile addresses a number of urgent issues in the assumptions and limits of all kinds of evolutionary approaches to the problem of ‘culture.’ This book is a major feat.” — Francesco Vitale, author of Biodeconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the Life Sciences
“Virality Vitality constitutes an immensely important contribution to scholarship at the emerging intersections of deconstruction and the so-called life sciences. Virality Vitality, however, does not simply propose a viral supplement to already established work in ‘bio-’ or ‘ecodeconstruction’ but invites us to rethink the very conditions of possibility of these fields. Basile’s work is equally important in redeploying and nuancing the ongoing conversations in the environmental posthumanities on nonhuman ‘life’ and material ‘agency,’ showing how deconstruction lets us reimagine otherwise any living-together on earth. The striking originality of thought found in these pages cements Basile as one of the most exciting new voices in deconstructive scholarship today.” — Philippe Lynes, author of Futures of Life Death on Earth: Derrida's General Ecology
“Basile [...] has written a brilliant book about Borges — that would be enough of a great thing for me — which also has important things to say about intellectual ambition, irony, language, and the things that the Digital Humanities can and cannot reveal.” -Steve Mentz
The Political Climate: Ecocriticism and the Apocalyptic Tone
ELH, 92(4), Winter 2025
Literature on (The) Trial: Benjamin, Deleuze and Guattari, and Derrida before Kafka
Oxford Literary Review, 47(1), July 2025
The University in Deconstruction: Interview with Peggy Kamuf and Samuel Weber
The OLR Supplement, August 28, 2025
Generalized Bastardy: Evolutionary Science, Neoliberalism, and the Far Right
The OLR Supplement, May 19, 2025
Will this too have been a Tree? Biblical and Biological Trees of Life-Science
SubStance, 54(1), May 2025
The Epic of Genesis: Catherine Malabou and the gêne of Epigenetics
Derrida Today, 16(2), Nov 2023
Symbioautothanatosis: Science as Symbiont in the Work of Lynn Margulis
Síntesis: Revista de Filosofía, 4(2), 2021
Other Matters: Karen Barad's Two Materialisms and the Science of Undecidability
Angelaki, 25(5), Sep 2020
Kant's Parasite: Sublime Biodeconstruction
CR: The New Centennial Review, Winter 2019
Massa por Argamassa: A “Biblioteca de Babel” e o Sonho de Totalidade [Portuguese Translation of
Tar for Mortar]
punctum books [Open Access], August 2019
Life/Force: Novelty and New Materialism in Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter
SubStance, 48(2), August 2019
How the Other Half-Lives: Life as Identity and Difference in Bennett and Schrödinger
Postmodern Culture [Open Access], 29(1), September 2018
The New Novelty: Corralation as Quarantine in Speculative Realism and New Materialism
Derrida Today, 11(2), November 2018
Borges y Yo, Eiron y Alazon: Irony in “The Library of Babel” and “Pierre Menard”
Variaciones Borges, 46, November 2018
Misreading Generalised Writing: From Foucault to Speculative Realism and New Materialism
Oxford Literary Review, 40(1), July 2018
Tar for Mortar: “The Library of Babel” and the Dream of Totality
punctum books [Open Access], March 2018
REVIEWS:
Review: Derrida, Jacques. Life Death
Philosophy Today, 65(2), Spring 2021
Review: Stijn De Cauwer, ed. Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of Crisis
Environmental Philosophy, 16(1), Spring 2019
Review: Biodeconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the Life Sciences, by Francesco Vitale
Critical Inquiry, October 2018 (online), Autumn 2019 46.1 (print)
Craig Venter’s Neoliberal Life: Speculative Valuation and the Myth of Scientific Genius
D/sjunctions, June 2026
Generalized Bastardy: Evolutionary Science, Neoliberalism, and the Far Right
Natural Election (A Review of Kathryn Paige Harden’s
Original Sin)
LA Review of Books, April 29, 2026
Generalized Bastardy: Evolutionary Science, Neoliberalism, and the Far Right
The OLR Supplement, May 19, 2025
Derrida and the New: Deconstruction, Speculative Realism, and New Materialism
A summary of The New Novelty
Edinburgh University Press Blog, 11.19.2018
You Don’t Know Jacques: Speculative Realism, New Materialism, and the Denial of Deconstruction
A summary of Misreading Generalised Writing
Edinburgh University Press Blog, 6.15.2018
Striking Resemblances
UIUC graduate workers’ action is part of a nationwide movement
Public Books, 4.5.2018
Excerpt from Tar for Mortar
Blog of the APA, 3.19.2018
Review: Stolen Oranges by Max Yeh
minor literature[s], 3.2.2018
Borges and Philosophy
Blog of the APA, 2.21.2018
Translating Babel
Inventory, Winter 2017
Publish It Yourself: The End of Alienated Labor in the Academic Publishing Industry
Berfrois, 11.7.2016
Derrida’s Seminars: Writing Before Writing Before the Letter
3:AM Magazine, 9.12.2016
Who’s Afraid of AAARG?
Academic publishing and the uncertain future of the humanities.
Guernica, 8.25.2016 | 中文, 微批 Paratext, 10.4.2016
Putting Borges’ Infinite Library on the Internet
Electric Lit, 6.21.2016,
Note: The editor chose the title, thus the erroneous "infinite"
On Exactitude in Maps
On Borges and Distant Reading
Territory, 5.4.2016
(Re)Creating Borges’ Library of Babel
kadar koli 10: Off the Books, 1.23.2016
Construir La Biblioteca de Babel. Entrevista con Jonathan Basile
Nexos, 8.23.2015
Published in Perfil, 8.16.2015, Print only
The Library of Babel as Seen from Within
The Paris Review Daily, 7.23.2015
Brooklyn Author Recreates Borges’ Library of Babel
Flavorwire, 4.23.2015
Note: I was living in DC at the time.
Borges’ “Library of Babel” comes to virtual life
Los Angeles Times, 4.29.2015
Jorge Luis Borges’ “Library of Babel” Is Now a Real Website. Borges Would Be Alarmed.
Slate (browbeat), 4.30.2015
Virtual Library of Babel Makes Borges’s Infinite Store of Books a Reality - Almost
The Guardian, 5.4.2015
Jorge Luis Borges fan brings his infinite library to life online
The Independent, 5.4.2015
La “biblioteca totale” di Borges realizzata al pc
La Stampa, 5.22.2015
Jorge Luis Borges’s infinite “Library of Babel” has been digitized
Quartz, 7.7.2015
El bibliotecario de Babel: la ficción de Borges hecha realidad virtual
La Nacion, 7.23.2015
This Digital Library Contains Every Phrase That Could Ever Be Uttered
Smithsonian Magazine, October 2015
How Do You Design a UX for Infinity?
Co.Design, 12.18.2015
Il a créé la bibliothèque infinie
Paris Match, 7.3.2016
Borges, esencial para el presente
Excelsior, 5.24.2019
Note: Most of the quotations here are the opposite of what I said in the interview
Babel ou la bibliothèque infinie, regorge de textes qui n'existent pas encore
Sciences et Avenir, 7.26.2020
