Derrida & Positions

03/24/11

Derrida & "Positions":

If you say, not write, "My name is Melina" --> there is a sense of immediacy. What you say is immediately attatched to language. You need no mediation (its not that you're writing this, you're just saying it). It seems that there is no diff. in the sign - the relationship between the sign and the reference unievocality (?).

It seems as if she needs no mediation; the problems of language aren't even there. She's expressing exactly what she wants.

Derrida trells us that this is a lure, a trap. In the experience of voice, we forget a basic functioning of all language (including voice, writing, all kinds of symbolic representation).
This is an illusion by the fact that we have verbal language (?)

When you write, you're much more aware of language.
"All languages are always an approximation of reality" - Bouchard.

If you start by saying that writing is only a representing speech, then you will begin to believe that writing is always secondary.

Everything functions like arch-writing, and its important to remember this.
We have constructed our understanding of writing based on the illusion of the primacy of the voice (!?!)

Feminism:

What does it mean "feminism" vs. "feminisms"?

There is not just one feminism, we only have feminisms.

1968 was a turning point for feminism (not directly because of May '68); there are many reasons for this.

Post-war women were given more rights.

70s/80s, French feminist ideas begin to spread/gain followers.
What is the difference between "gender" and "sex"?

sex = biological, gender = cultural.

For Feminism, the issue of agency becomes very important (?)
What is phallocentrism, phallo-logocentrism, phallocratism?

phallocentrism = metaphor for the male-centered society.
Phallo-logocentrism = logocentrism is a word used by Derrida; feminists put the phallo in front of it (why?).
phallocratism = phallocratic = a man's world.

What is essentialism?

Think of it as essentialism vs. constructialism
Essentialists believe that women and men are essentially different, and that women are therefore closer to the Earth. Constructialists believe that the differences between men and women are nothing but a social construct.
Similar to the debate that is often called sameness vs. difference.

What is separatism?

There is a specificity of the female experience, and often this specificity has been repressed. Therefore, the only way for women to recooperate this idea of difference untainted by this patriarchal system is to move outside this system controlled by males.