July 12

“We do not know what ‘Being’ means. But even if we ask, ‘What is ‘Being’?’, we keep within an understanding of the ‘is’, though we are unable to fix conceptionally what that ‘is’ signifies.” (BT 25) explication, from explicare – Lat., to unfold (a term from the New Critics, an attempt to unfold the text from within itself, without outside context, having much in common with structuralism) aporia, logical contradiction, an “irreducible point” (even though contradictory, unresolvable). Important for Derrida as the point of deconstruction appears in a text. from Aristotle Physics IV

Place [Space] (as such) is not matter, not form, not extension. Therefore, place is “the boundary of the containing body at which it is in contact with the contained body.” (IV.4) Place is somewhere but it is not in a place but “as the limit of the limited.” (IV.5)

Time (as such) is not now, not movement, not really before and after (which are more spatial than temporal). Time elapses when we move from A to B, which are different “and [there is] some third thing is intermediate to them.” The now is a boundary.” That which perishes and becomes in time (in the same way that bodies come to be in space. (IV.10)

Here are a few suggestions to focus your attention for next week’s reading, “Form and Meaning: A Note on the Phenomenology of Language”- (not reading “The Supplement of Copula”)

Describe “form” as Derrida approaches and “defines” it in this essay. What problem does Derrida identify in Husserl’s methodology regarding expression and meaning? Why is it problematic? (problematic is not necessarily “bad”, just interesting) Esp. in the “Mirror Writing” section, consider the relationship between the “preexpressive noema” and the “expressive noema.” Connect the structure of this analysis to other moments in our readings and/or discussions. What’s the big deal about the “is”? (consider last week’s material/discussions too) some Greek: noema – the object of thought noeisis – the process of perceiving

Some secondary materials on Derrida Jonathan Culler, On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism (Routledge, 1983). John D, Caputo, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida (Indiana, 1997). Christopher Norris, Deconstruction: Theory and Practice (Methuen, 1982).

The introductions to the translations of larger works are often quite good. See esp: Gayatri Spivak, extensive Introduction to Of Grammatology (Johns Hopkins, 1997) Derek Attridge, Introduction to Acts of Literature, and also the Interview “’This Strange Institution called Literature’” (Routledge, 1992). Barbara Johnson, “Outwork, Prefacing” [Introduction] to Dissemination (Chicago, 1981).

For a “slower” version of Derrida’s ideas, perhaps reading some of the Interviews published in Points . . . Interviews, 1974-1994 (Ed. Elisabeth Weber, Stanford, 1995).