Derrida Incorporated HUGH J. SILVERMAN State University

Self-Decentering: Derrida Incorporated

HUGH J. SILVERMAN State University of New York at Stony Brook

Differance is neither a word nor a concept. - Jacques Derrida, "Differance"

Heidegger reminds us constantly that the sense of being is neither the word "being" nor the concept of being. - Jacques Derrida, Oj Grammatology

Differance is neither a thing nor a concept, and the writing that represents it turns out not to be ordinary writing but what Derrida " (OG 60ff.) calls "arch6-w-riting." - Newton Garver, "Derrida on Rousseau on Writing"

... we could perhaps consider this "word" or "concept" diff6rance "which is literally [... neither a word nor a concept" ... - J. L. Houdebine, "Positions" ' The motif of différance, when indicated by a silent a, does not, in " fact, work either as a "concept" or simply as a "word." . - Jacques Derrida, "Positions"

Self-decentering is the elaboration of identity throughout a play of dif ferances. The self is dispersed and disseminated in writing, specifically what Derrida calls "arche-writing." Conventionally such claims are ascribed to a single author: the "self' according to Derrida is such and such, or Derrida's cen- tral thesis concerning the "self' is so and so. The "epi-grammes" cited above re- iterate a self-decentering of which Derrida is both tenor and vehicle. The inscription of "Differance is neither a word nor a concept" is not present

45 in the French text of "La Ihfférance" as published in Th6orie d'ensemble1 nor as it is reproduced in Marges de la philosophie (1972).z Yet it appears within the first five paragraphs of David Allison's translation of the essay, none of which are in the aforementioned French texts. Who then is the author of "Differance is neither a word nor a concept?" Has the authorial self been de-centered into the position of the translator? Is there an unpublished letter by Derrida to the translator providing the five paragraphs in question? Or is there another published text which begins with these paragraphs and which includes the state- ment that "d1#feranceis neither a word nor a concept?" Further along in the text, we do find ']e dirais donc d'abord que la différance, qui n'est ni mot ni concept, m'a paru stratégiquement le plus propre d penser, ''5 sinon d maarier ... A corresponding passage in David Allison's translation reads: "I will say, first of all, that differance.which is neither a word nor a concept, seemed to me to be strategically the theme most proper to think out, if not to master ... " We therefore are reassured that most of the translation does render the French text to which it corresponds. But what of the first five paragraphs? Are they a pre-text for announcing Derrida and Derrida's text? If the first five paragraphs are a sort of introduction to Derrida's text, it is curious that we find a translator's note which reminds the reader that "differance"" or difference with an "a," incorporates two significations : "to differ" and "to defer."4 This footnote to Derrida's own discussion of the verb " `to differ' [différer)" simply crystallizes the point that differ-ance as a substantive and a participial involvesboth non-identity and sameness (but delayed sameness). Are Allison's five paragraphs a pre-text for Derrida's essay in the same way that the "Editor'sNote" in Sartre's Nausea is a pre-text for Roquentin's diary? If so, should we conclude that Allison is a pre-text for Derrida, that is, Derrida's self de-centered, deferred, and spatialized into another place? The preliminary note to the translation indicates that the essay "Differance" was "reprinted in Th6orie d'ensemble, a collection of essays by Derrida and others, published by Editions Seuil in 1968" and "it is reproduced here by per- mission of Editions Seuil." The reader therefore turns to the July-September issue of the Bulletin de la Soci?t? fran?aisede Philosophie in which the text was first printed. In that version, one finds Jean Wahl's introduction to Derrida's lec-

" 'JacquesDerrida, "La Differance, Tel Quel: Th6oried'ensemble (Paris: Editionsdu Seuil, 1968),pp. 41-66. ""La Dz#f6rance,in Derrida,Marges de la philosophie(Paris: LesEditions de Minuit, 1972),pp. 1-29.The Englishtranslation by DavidB. Allisonis publishedin Speechand Phenomena(Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), pp. 129-160. 'Derrida, Margesde la philosophie,p. 7. ·Allison,Speech and Phenomena,p. 129n.