Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis
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Durham E-Theses Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis LONG, MAEBH How to cite: LONG, MAEBH (2010) Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/665/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis Maebh Long This thesis presents a theory of structural irony gleaned from the irony theorised and performed in the texts of thinkers whose works operate on the border of the (non)propositional: Plato, Friedrich Schlegel, Maurice Blanchot, Paul de Man, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. While focusing on the irony performed in the texts of Jacques Derrida, and using his engagements with these thinkers as a frame, this is not a theory of “Derridean” irony, but an irony (primarily) elaborated through a deconstructive approach and vocabulary. Structural irony is seen to take the form of the transgressive step/counter-step of parabasis and the non-hierarchical disorder of parataxis. It is an anacoluthic force/weakness, and exhibits the conjunctive/disjunctive trait of hyphenation. It is neither of cynical, aesthetic distance nor humorous, parodic engagement, but is a productive movement of (impossible) negotiation between terms. Irony is an expression of the beyond, within, and this reworking of borders and limits is performed in the fragment/aphorism. The (ir)responsible step taken in Derrida‟s texts is understood as a mode of structural irony, and it is proposed that the stylistic changes that occurred in Derrida‟s “later” texts were in part due to the autoimmunity caused by an overexposure to the “laws of the interview”. Throughout the thesis styles that manipulate the unmasterable excesses of irony are investigated, and each chapter ends with a reading of one of Derrida‟s more “literary” or “performative” texts, while recognising and playing with the falsity of such generic makers or divisions. Inscribing Derrida within a tradition of thinkers of the non-thetic both extends readings of that tradition and of irony itself, while affording a valuable way of approaching the “structures” within Derrida‟s texts. Irony is not presented as the transcendental signifier of deconstruction, but as a profitable way of understanding deconstruction and its relation to other writers. Derrida and a Theory of Irony: Parabasis and Parataxis Maebh Long Ph.D. Department of English Studies Durham University 2010 P a g e | 3 Contents Acknowledgements 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Introduction 11 1: A History of Irony 1.1 Irony and Origins 21 1.2 Irony and Philosophy 24 1.3 Irony and Criticism 29 1.4 Irony and Reconstruction 35 1.5 Derrida and Postmodern Irony 38 2: Structures of Irony: Parabasis, Parataxis and Anacoluthon 1.1 Introduction 50 1.2 Irony and de Man 51 1.3 Derrida and de Man 56 1.4 Syntactic Irony 61 1.5 Syntactic Irony to Paratactic Irony 65 1.6 Parabatic Irony 73 1.7 Irony and Performativity 77 1.8 The Performative Force of Irony 84 1.9 Irony and the Anacoluthon 87 1.10 Fables of Irony 91 3: Dialogues of Irony: Socrates and Plato 1.1 Introduction 96 1.2 The (Writing of the) Paratactic Pharmakon 96 1.3 Ironic Reading 100 1.4 Traditional Readings of Socratic Irony 104 1.5 The Paratactic Irony of Socrates 108 1.6 Platonic Irony 115 1.7 Paratactic Postcards 122 4: Fragments of Irony: Schlegel, Blanchot and Aphorisms 1.1 Introduction 130 1.2 The German Romantic Subject-(non)Work 131 1.3 Schlegel and Irony 134 1.4 Irony and Antithetical Extremes 139 1.5 Schlegel‟s Fragments 143 1.6 The Step Bridge: Blanchot and the Fragmentary 147 1.7 Derrida and the Irony of Aphorisms 150 1.8 Parabatic Quotation 157 1.9 Incomprehensibility to Impossibility, Transcendence to Transgression 161 1.10 Poematic Strophes 164 P a g e | 4 5: (Ir)Responsibility and Irony: Levinas and Ethical Language 1.1 Introduction 170 1.2 A Deconstructive Ethics? 171 1.3 Irony and the “Ethical” 176 1.4 The Ironic Response 181 1.5 Ironic Hospitality 185 1.6 Levinas and the Responsible Response 188 1.7 Ironic, Ethical Writing(s) 194 1.8 Ironic Interruptions 202 1.9 Ethical Fragments 208 6: Ironic Inter-views: Autobiography and Self-defence 1.1 Introduction 214 1.2 Derrida‟s Later Style 215 1.3 The Laws of the Interview 222 1.4 Irony and Autoimmunity 226 1.5 The Autoimmune Inter-view 231 1.6 Autoimmune (Auto)biographies 235 1.7 Circumfession: A Parabatic AutoBioThanatoHeteroGraphical Opus 242 1.7.1 The Fragments of Autobiography 243 1.7.2 Autoimmune Thanatography 246 1.7.3 Autobiographical Doublings 249 Conclusion: W(h)ither Deconstruction? 255 Appendixes i: “Fable” by Francis Ponge 259 ii: “At This Very Moment” – final fragment 260 Bibliography 262 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. P a g e | 5 Acknowledgements An enormous and rather overwhelming debt of gratitude goes to my supervisor, Timothy Clark, for his exceptional supervision, his sense of academic rigor and his inspiring personal commitment to his theoretical engagements. I feel honoured and privileged to have worked with him. My thanks too go to Graham Allen, who, having been an extraordinary M.A. supervisor, has continued to play an extremely valued role in my life and work, and without whose encouragement and advice this Ph.D. would never have happened. A thank you must go to my friends, who over the years have had to endure interminable expositions of irony, but were patient and caring throughout. I‟m grateful to those who helped by reading sections, those who double-checked my translations, and those who listened, in person or, Eileen and Peter, via the airwaves. Marc, the four years of friendship, and the discussions, some in windowless rooms, some held on the landing, are things I cherish. I hope there are many more. And finally, a huge and heartfelt thank you to my family – Áine, Fin and Ciara – for your constant love, support and encouragement over the years. I most certainly couldn‟t have done this without you, and whatever good there is in this thesis, and in me, is because of you. P a g e | 6 Abbreviations * denotes texts that are referenced by the number of the fragment assigned to it by the author rather than the page number. Blanchot: IC The Infinite Conversation. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. ED The Writing of the Disaster. Trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. SB The Step not Beyond. Trans. Lycette Nelson. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. De Man: AD “Autobiography as De-facement”. MLN 94.5 (1979): 919-30. AI Aesthetic Ideology. Ed Andrzej Warminski. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. AO Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. BI Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism. London: Methuen, 1983. Derrida: AC* “Aphorism Countertime” Trans. Nicholas Royle. Psyche: Inventions of the Other Volume II. Ed Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008: 127-42. AE Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas. Trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. AF* “52 Aphorisms for a Foreword”. Trans. Andrew Benjamin. Psyche: Inventions of the Other Volume II. Ed Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008: 117-26. AM “At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am” Psyche: Inventions of the Other Volume I. Trans. Rubin Berezdivin and Peggy Kamuf. Ed. Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007: 143-90. AP Aporias. Trans. Thomas Dutoit. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. AR “Autoimmunity: Real and Imagined Suicides” Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. Ed. Giovanna Borradori. Trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003: 85-137. AS “As if I were Dead: An Interview with Jacques Derrida”. Applying: To Derrida. Ed. John Brannigan et al. London: Macmillan, 1996: 212-26. P a g e | 7 AT “Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy”. Trans. John P. Leavey Jr. OLR 6.2 (1984): 3-37. CC “Che cos‟è la poesia?” Trans. Peggy Kamuf. A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds. Ed. Peggy Kamuf. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991: 221-40. CF* Circumfession. Bennington, Geoffrey and Derrida, Jacques. Jacques Derrida. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991. DB Derridabase. Bennington, Geoffrey and Derrida, Jacques. Jacques Derrida. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991. DC Interview in Kearney, Richard ed. and trans. Dialogues with Contemporary Continental Thinkers: The Phenomenological Heritage. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984: 105-126.