This book reveals the basic tenets of what may be called a "poetics of singularity" in Martin Heidegger, Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, and the strange late essays of Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Clark explores a series of powerful questions concerning basic features of Western thought: the nature of understanding, Kierkegaard's "singular individual," the uniqueness of historical testimony, and the nature of community.

Features of Poetics of Singularity:
. Identifies a forceful tradition of twentieth-century poetics -- which differs from received ideas of deconstruction
. Makes available in English previously untranslated material by Heidegger and Gadamer and discusses relatively unknown texts by Blanchot and recent work by Derrida