Derrida, Dupin, Adami: "Il faut être plusieurs pour écrire" Author(s): Renée Riese Hubert Reviewed work(s): Source: Yale French Studies, No. 84, Boundaries: Writing & Drawing (1994), pp. 242-264 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930189 . Accessed: 19/07/2012 21:01 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Yale University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Yale French Studies. http://www.jstor.org RENEE RIESE HUBERT Derrida,Dupin, Adami: "II fautetre plusieurspour ecrire"' "LE TRAIT, LA LIGNE" These twowords are frequently used byJacques Derrida in textswhich, moreoften than not, translate or adapt intertexts-allusions as well as quotations without quotation marks. The texts consist of lines, sounds,words which are borrowedor appropriated, transformed, mul- tipliedor fragmented. Since "Le trait,la ligne"simultaneously refer to the acts of drawingand of writing,their implications remain both verbaland visual. La VWriteen peinture comprisesa varietyof texts, notably" + R+," whichoppose conventional and programmaticcriti- cism and make frequentuse of polysemiclanguage. Naturally, the philosopherdeliberately refrains from providing a straightforwardar- gumentconcerning the confrontationor collusion of writingand drawing.His strategiesamount nonetheless to the deliberatetrans- gressionsof borderlines, margins, and frames. If we wereto choosethe obviousexample of Antonin Artaud-on whose careeras man ofthe theaterDerrida wrote two chapters, ("La Parolesoufflee" and "Le The- atrede la cruaute," in L'Ecriture et la difference)and to whose draw- ingshe has recentlydevoted, in collaborationwith Paule Thevenin,a lengthyessay-it would be erroneousto claim thathe separatesthe draftsmanfrom the writer, all themore so becausehe quitefrequently returnsto his previoustexts and theirproblematics while pursuing a 1. Jacques Derrida, "+ R (par dessus le march), " Derriere le Miroir,no. 214, May 1978, reprintedin La VWrit6en peinture, (Paris: Flammarion, 1979), 175. "One must be several in order to write," The Truth in Painting, trans. Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod (Chicago: Chicago UniversityPress, 1987), 152. YFS 84, Boundaries: Writing& Drawing, ed. M. Reid, ? 1994 by Yale University. 242 RENEE RIESE HUBERT 243 new line of thought.2In "+R+," Derridalooks at ValerioAdami, a painterwho, like Artaud the writer, comes close to displayinga double talent,for instance when he mercilesslyentraps his reader/viewerin a delightfuldouble bind. Adami "portrays"many writers, notably Wal- terBenjamin, August Strindberg, and SigmundFreud, while introduc- inginto his canvassesand drawingswords, titles, and signaturesthat need to be deciphered.Since Derridafocuses on a painterwho trans- gressesthe boundariesof two languagesor two arts,he makesuse of theirdual inscriptionas a springboardfor his own sometimesparallel inquiries.He thuscontinues the experimentation of his own Glas and Margesde la philosophicin substitutingfor the standard format of the pagespatial columns, cylinders, bifurcations, and othermeans of sub- division.3These writingsconsistently overdetermine concepts of framing.By thus interrelating and interweavingdrawing and writing, Derrida adapts in his own way a not uncommonpractice among twentieth-centuryartists, including, of course, book designers. In fact, some artistsoften rely on an inventedform of writing in such a way thattheir figures, representational or not, lose theirautonomy, imbed- ded as theyare in an illegibletext. In manyinstances, however, the lettersare assembledinto constellationscapable ofenhancing rather thaneliminating the figurative element. Cy Twombly'sworks are exemplaryin thisregard since theycon- sist essentiallyof undecipherable scribbles. These handwrittenlines which willfullyrefuse to followthe linearorganization of the page wouldseem to belongto bothwriting and drawing,perhaps mainly for thepurpose of undermining both systems of representation. His ges- turalart relies on and indeedinvokes the movementsof an invisible hand,movements that establish unmediated communication with the viewers/readers,provided they consent to bypassrecognizable alpha- betsand abandonconventional mind-sets. Without relying on always alreadyestablished patterns, Twombly succeeds in producinghis own pulsationallanguage which shows affinities with graffiti, that is with anonymouslyproduced signs defying single authorship so as to pro- pose immediatereactions to an event. 2. Derrida,L'Ecriture et la difference,(Paris: Seuil, 1967); Dessins et portraits, (Paris:Gallimard, 1986). 3. , Glas (Paris:Galilee, 1974); Marges de laphilosophie,(Paris: Editions de Minuit,1972). Claudette Sartiliot's article "Telepathy and Writingin JacquesDerrida's Glas," Paragraph12, (1989): 214-28, has beenparticularly useful to me. 244 Yale FrenchStudies HenryMichaux, a trulymajor double talent,can provideus with equallytelling examples. His imaginarycreatures transcend the usual categoriesof human, animal, and vegetable. His distortedvocal articu- lationsproduce a nondiscourse,his gesturallines waverbetween ab- sence and presence;and his hauntingcreatures, often reduced to a singleline, evolve outside space while defyingthe laws ofgravity. His visual and verbalsubversions undercut the sequentialunfolding of materialor, for that matter,immaterial events. Moving further and furtheraway from mimesis, representation, and narration,Henry Mi- chaux's languages,seemingly stemming from the same body,finally mergeor at least collapse. No less thanTwombly's, Michaux's audi- ence is asked to perceive,read, decipher lines-"le trait,la ligne" pertainingneither to a familiaralphabet nor to a recognizableoutline and defyingthe principlesof repetition and analysis.The bifolddis- coursethus generated by Twombly'sand Michaux'sgraphic practice can also be derivedfrom the confrontation between Jacques Dupin and ValerioAdami, as well as fromJacques Derrida's dialogue with the painter. Adami'sart, which maintains close tieswith the verbal, has elicited searchingcommentaries from several prominent critics, poets, and philosophers.The Pompidoucatalogue includes texts by HubertDa- misch,Jacques Derrida, Jacques Dupin, and Jean-Francois Lyotard.4 The painter,an Italianby birth,lives in Pariswhere he can engagein fre- quentdiscussions with them. Rather than scrutinize the various types ofcriticism that Adami has generated,whether philosophical, psycho- analytic,deconstructive, or sociopolitical,I preferto focuson there- ciprocalrelationships that have somehowbridged the gap between writingand drawingnot only in Adami'sceuvre, but in thewritings of Dupin and Derrida.5We owe muchof the interchange among them to theGalerie Maeght, which not only organizes exhibits accompanied by exhaustivecatalogues, but publisheslivres de peintre,including two by Adami,and, in Derrierele miroir,features encounters between graphicartists and poets. Fourissues of this illustratedjournal have beendevoted to Adamiso far. 4. Adami (Paris:Centre Georges Pompidou, 1985). Damisch in collaborationwith HenriMartin also publisheda studyentitled Adami (Paris:Maeght, 1974), which in- cludesa lengthycommentary on Viaggio verso Londra comparingthe writing in this paintingto so manyflies (12ff ). 5. JacquesDupin, "Valerio Adami," Derrire le Miroir,no. 188, Nov. 1970;L'Espace autrement dit (Paris:Galilee, 1982). RENEE RIESE HUBERT 245 The Italianartist favors fairly bright but never glaring tones which can hardlybe confusedwith primary or natural colors. His use ofcolor is definedby Derrida as a secondthrust, if not an aftermath:"Color is neveranticipated in it,it neverarrives before the complete halt of the motortrait" (172). Drawing would thus function as theprimary force, shapingand framingfigures by means of black lines. Such painterly devicesas brushstrokesnever appear on Adami'sposterlike surfaces. The engravingentitled Crisis displaysin exemplaryfashion the key characteristicsof Adami's art and its commitmentto bothdrawing and writing(Fig. 1). Clearlycalligraphic letters stand out, while the signa- ture,far more prominently displayed than a meresign of recognition wouldwarrant, is apparentlyinscribed as a potentsource of energy. By theimpact given to and byeach ofits fiveletters, the signature simul- taneouslyasserts continuity and discontinuity. The titleof the work of art,also "handwritten,"inscribed not so much withinthe pictorial surfaceas in a pictorialno-man's-land, participates in the structure insteadof functioningas a merelabel mediatingbetween artist and viewer.The titleand the date, 1927, neither of which occupies a central position,serve as a minimalnarrative substitute for an absenttext that the viewer,reduced to whateverclues s/hecan assemble,feels com- pelledto piece togetherand embroider.The writtenword "Crisis" not onlyadds to theconstellation of lines, but somehow takes the place of the scene thatthe viewerwould normallyexpect to contemplate.It abstractsor, better still, usurps continuity, discursive dominance, rep- resentation.Telescoped writing replaces the pictorialand