The Reception of Derrida

The Reception of DerridaTranslation and Transformation

Michael Thomas

© Michael Thomas 2006

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thomas, Michael, 1969–The reception of Derrida : translation and transformation / Michael

Thomas.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

1. Derrida, Jacques. 2. Translating and interpreting. I. Title.B2430.D484T47 2006194—dc22 2005056413

Transferred to Digital Printing in 2011

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-8992-5

ISBN 978-1-349-54236-9 ISBN 978-0-230-51410-2 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230514102

forMadoka

andWilliam

vii

Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

1. The Task of the Translator: Translation as Transformation 10

‘Des Tours de Babel’ 15

2. Interpretation and Overinterpretation: Deconstruction in America 22

Translating ‘Structure, Sign and Play’ 26De Man and deconstruction 28‘The Rhetoric of Temporality’ 34‘The Rhetoric of Blindness: Jacques Derrida’s Reading of Rousseau’ 37

De Man and politics 40‘Wordsworth and Hölderlin’ 42‘Heidegger’s Exegeses of Hölderlin’ 46‘The Temptation of Permanence’ 48‘Declarations of Independence’ 51Deconstruction and feminist criticism 54Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles 55Feminism and the politics of undecidability 57

3. The Deconstruction of a Pedagogical Institution: Derrida and ‘The Principle of Reason’ 69

The beginning of GREPH 71Kant and the limits of philosophy 74‘Mochlos, or The Conflict of the Faculties’ 75‘Languages and Institutions of Philosophy’ 78The International College of Philosophy 84Nietzsche and On the Future of Our Educational Institutions 88

Reflecting on ‘The Principle of Reason’ 91

4. The Postmodern Political Condition: Deconstruction and Enlightenment 96

Deconstruction and the events of May 1968 98The Postmodern Political Condition 105‘Modernity – an Unfinished Project’ 107Heirs of enlightenment: Derrida and Habermas 110Derrida and the post-Kantian critical tradition 114Derrida and the ‘apocalyptic tone recently adopted in philosophy’ 117

5. The Politics of the Proper Name: Nietzsche, Derrida and de Man Disfigured 122

Translating Nietzsche 124Paul de Man disfigured 127The remains of the proper name 139The Other Heading 142

6. Maintaining the Presence of Marx: Marxism andDeconstruction 149

Spectrality 151Fukuyama and the end of history 153‘Before the Law’ 158‘Force of Law: the “Mystical Foundation of Authority” ’ 161The promise of democracy 165The New International 170

Afterword: Legacy 174

Bibliography 179

Index of Works by Jacques Derrida 186

Index of Proper Names and Key words 187

viii Contents

ix

Acknowledgements

The author and publisher wish to thank the following for permission toreproduce copyright material from:

Apostolides, J.-M., ‘On Paul de Man’s War’, Critical Inquiry 15:4,pp. 765–6. Copyright © 1989 The University of Chicago Press. Used by per-mission of The University of Chicago Press. Copyright © 1996 from Derridaand the Political, by R. Beardsworth. Reproduced by permission ofRoutledge/Thomson Publishing. Blindness and Insight, by Paul de Man,copyright © 1988 Paul de Man. Used by permission of Oxford UniversityPress, Inc. Brenkman, John, Brenkman, Jules, and Law, David., ‘Resettingthe Agenda’, Critical Inquiry 15:4, pp. 804–11. Copyright © 1989 TheUniversity of Chicago Press. Used by permission of The University ofChicago Press. Callinicos, A. ‘Reactionary Postmodernism?’, reprintedfrom Postmodernism and Society, edited by R. Boyne and A. Rattansi.Copyright © 1990 Macmillan. Used by permission of the publisher,Palgrave Macmillan. Copyright © 1988 from Paul de Man: Deconstructionand the Critique of Aesthetic Ideology, by C. Norris. Reproduced by permis-sion of Routledge/Taylor Francis Group LLC. Copyright © 1994 fromSpecters of Marx: the State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the NewInternational, by J. Derrida. Reproduced by permission of Routledge/Taylor& Francis Group, LLC. Critchley, S., The Ethics of Deconstruction. Copyright© 1992 Blackwell Publishing. Used with permission of the publisher,Blackwell Publishing. Culler, J., ‘Paul de Man’s War and the AestheticIdeology’, Critical Inquiry 15:4, pp. 777–83. Copyright © 1989 TheUniversity of Chicago Press. Used by permission of The University ofChicago Press. Derrida, J., ‘Languages and Institutions of Philosophy’,Semiotic Inquiry, 4:2, 91–154. Copyright © 1984 Semiotic Inquiry. Reprintedwith the permission of Semiotic Inquiry. Derrida, J. ‘The Principle ofReason’, Diacritics 13:3. Copyright © 1983 The Johns Hopkins UniversityPress. Reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.Derrida, J., Writing and Difference. Copyright © 1978 The University ofChicago Press. Used by permission of the publisher, The University ofChicago Press. Derrida, J., ‘Biodegradables: Seven Diary Fragments’, CriticalInquiry 15:4, 812–73. Copyright © 1989 The University of Chicago Press.Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press. Derrida, J., ‘Beforethe Law’, trans. A. Ronell and C. Roulston, in Acts of Literature: Jacques

Derrida, ed. Derek Attridge. Copyright © 1992 Routledge/ThomsonPublishing. Used by permission of Routledge/Thomson Publishing.Derrida, J., ‘Declarations of Independence’, New Political Science, Volume15, 7–15. Copyright © 1986 Taylor and Francis UK. Reprinted with per-mission from the publisher (http://www.tandf.co.uk). Derrida, J., ‘Like theSound of the Sea Deep within a Shell: Paul de Man’s War’, P. Kamuf trans.,Critical Inquiry 14:3, 590–652. Copyright © 1989 The University of ChicagoPress. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press. Derrida, J.,‘Mochlos; or, The Conflict of the Faculties’, reprinted from Logomachia: theConflict of the Faculties, edited by R. Rand. Copyright © 1992 by theUniversity of Nebraska Press. Used with permission of the publisher,Nebraska University Press. Derrida, J., ‘Of an Apocalyptic Tone RecentlyAdopted in Philosophy’, trans. by J. P. Leavey, Oxford Literary Review 6:2(1984), 3–37. Reprinted with permission of the Oxford Literary Review.Derrida, J., ‘The Deconstruction of Actuality: an Interview with JacquesDerrida’, trans. J. Rée, in Radical Philosophy 68, 28–41. Copyright 1994Radical Philosophy. Reprinted with permission of Radical Philosophy.Derrida, J., Of Grammatology. pp. 4–5, 14. © 1977. Reprinted with permis-sion of The Johns Hopkins University Press. Derrida, J., Spurs: Nietzsche’sStyles, B. Harlow trans. Copyright © 1979 The University of Chicago Press.Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press. Derrida, J., TheOther Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe. Copyright © 1992 IndianaUniversity Press. Used by permission of the publishers, Indiana UniversityPress. Eagleton, T., Against the Grain, Copyright © 1986 by Verso. Used bypermission of the publisher, Verso. Eagleton, T., Literary Theory. Copyright© 1983 Blackwell Publishing. Used with permission of the publisher,Blackwell Publishing. Eagleton, T., The Function of Criticism. Copyright ©1984 by Verso. Used by permission of the publisher, Verso. Eagleton, T.,Walter Benjamin. Copyright © 1981 by Verso. Used by permission of thepublisher, Verso. Copyright © 1994 from Feminism and Deconstruction:Ms. en Abyme, by D. Elam. Reproduced by permission of Routledge/Thomson Publishing. Hartman, G., Deconstruction and Criticism. Copyright© 1979. Used by permission of the publisher, The Continuum InternationalPublishing Group Inc. Heller, A., and Féhér, F., The Postmodern PoliticalCondition. Copyright © 1988 by Blackwell Publishing. Used with permis-sion of the publisher, Blackwell Publishing. Helmling, S., ‘HistoricizingDerrida’, Postmodern Culture 4:3 (1994). © The Johns Hopkins UniversityPress. Reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.Holdheim, W., ‘Jacques Derrida’s Apologia’, Critical Inquiry 15:4, 784–96.Copyright © 1989 The University of Chicago Press. Used by permission ofThe University of Chicago Press. Johnson, B., A World of Difference. © 1988

x Acknowledgements

The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted with permission of TheJohns Hopkins University Press. Judt, T., Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals,1944–56. Copyright © 1992 The Regents of the University of California.Used by permission of the publisher, the University of California Press.Man, P. de, Allegories of Reading. Copyright © 1979 by Yale University Press.Used by permission of the publisher, Yale University Press. Memoires forPaul de Man, by J. Derrida. Copyright © 1986 Columbia University Press.Reprinted with permission of the publisher. Michaels, W. B., Glyph 8,Textual Studies. pp. 233. © 1980 The Johns Hopkins University Press.Reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.Nietzsche, Friedrich, On the Future of Our Educational Institutions, translatedby Michael W. Grenke (South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 2004).Norris, C., Derrida. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins PublishersLtd. © Christopher Norris 1987. Proust, M., Swann’s Way, translated byC. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kimartin, published by Chatto &Windus. © 2004 The Random House Group Ltd. Reprinted by permissionof The Random House Group Ltd. Readings, B., ‘The Deconstruction ofPolitics’, from Reading de Man Reading, edited by L. Waters and W. Godzich.© 1989 The University of Minnesota Press. Reprinted by permission of TheUniversity of Minnesota Press. Reprinted J. Derrida: ‘Des Tours de Babel’from Difference in Translation, edited and translated by Joseph F. Graham.Copyright © 1985 by Cornell University. Used by permission of the pub-lisher, Cornell University Press. Soper, K., ‘The Limits of Hauntology’.Copyright © 1995 Radical Philosophy. Reprinted with permission of RadicalPhilosophy.

The Ear of the Other, by Jacques Derrida, copyright © 1985 by SchockenBooks, a division of Random House, Inc. Used by permission ofSchocken Books, a division of Random House, Inc. The Prelude, byWilliam Wordsworth, copyright © 1960. William Wordsworth. Used bypermission of Oxford University Press, Inc. The Rhetoric of Romanticism,by Paul de Man. Copyright © 1984 Columbia University Press. Reprintedwith permission of the publisher. Weber, S., and Sussman, H., Glyph I.pp. 207–8. © 1977 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted withpermission of The Johns Hopkins University Press. Weber, S., andSussman, H., Glyph I. pp. 172–1970. © 1977 The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press. Reprinted with permission of The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press. Weber, S., and Sussman, H., Glyph II. pp. 162–254. ©1977 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted with permission ofThe Johns Hopkins University Press. Wiener, J., ‘The Responsibilities ofFriendship: Jacques Derrida on Paul de Man’s Collaboration’, CriticalInquiry 15:4, 797–803. Copyright © 1989 The University of Chicago

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xii Acknowledgements

Press. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press. Wolfreys, J.,Occasional Deconstructions. Copyright © 2004 State University of NewYork Press. Young, R., Untying the Text: a Poststructuralist Reader.Copyright © 1981 Routledge/Thomson Publishing. Used by permissionof Routledge/Thomson Publishing Group.

Abbreviations

I have referred throughout to the English translations of Derrida’s works.They are ordered alphabetically below and referenced in the text usingthe mnemonic as shown below.

AL Acts of Literature: Jacques Derrida, ed. Derek Attridge (Londonand New York: Routledge, 1992).

B ‘Biodegradables: Seven Diary Fragments’, trans. Peggy Kamuf,Critical Inquiry 15:4 (1989), 812–73.

BB ‘But, Beyond … (Open Letter to Anne McClintock and RobNixon)’, trans. Peggy Kamuf, Critical Inquiry 13 (1986), 155–70.

BL ‘Before the Law’, trans. Avital Ronell and Christine Roulston,in Acts of Literature: Jacques Derrida, ed. Derek Attridge (Londonand New York: Routledge, 1992), 181–220.

CH ‘Choreographies’, trans. Christie V. McDonald, in Points:Interviews, 1974–1994, ed. Elisabeth Weber (Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press, 1995), 89–108.

DIA ‘Deconstruction in America: an Interview with Jacques Derrida’,trans. James Creech, Critical Exchange 17 (1985), 1–33.

DIS Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1981).

DO ‘Deconstruction and the Other’, Interview with RichardKearney, in Richard Kearney, Dialogues with ContemporaryContinental Thinkers (Manchester: Manchester University Press,1984), 105–26.

DOA ‘The Deconstruction of Actuality: an Interview withJacques Derrida’, trans. Jonathan Rée, Radical Philosophy68 (1994), 28–41.

DOI ‘Declarations of Independence’, trans. Tom Keenan andTom Pepper, New Political Science 15 (1986), 7–15.

DTB ‘Des Tours de Babel’, Semeia: an Experimental Journal of BiblicalCriticism 54 (1991), 3–54.

EO The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation:Texts and Discussions with Jacques Derrida, trans. Peggy Kamuf,ed. Christie V. McDonald (New York: Schocken Books, 1985).

FL ‘Force of Law: the “Mystical Foundation of Authority” ’, trans.Avital Ronell, in Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice,

xiii

ed. Drucilla Cornell, Michael Rosenfield and David GrayCarlson (London and New York: Routledge, 1992).

G Glas, trans. John P. Leavey, Jr., and Richard Rand (Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press, 1986).

IWD ‘An Interview with Derrida (from Le Nouvel Observateur)’, trans.David B. Allison, in Derrida and Différance, eds David Wood andRobert Bernasconi (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern UniversityPress, 1988).

JD Jacques Derrida, trans. Geoffrey Bennington (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1993).

JDCS ‘Jacques Derrida’, in Criticism in Society, ed. Imre Salusinszky(London and New York: Methuen, 1987), 9–24.

LINC Limited Inc, trans. Samuel Weber and Jeffrey Mehlman, ed.Gerald Graff (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press,1988).

LIP ‘Languages and Institutions of Philosophy’, Semiotic Inquiry 4:2(1984), 91–154.

LJF ‘Letter to a Japanese Friend’, trans. David B. Allison, in Derridaand Différance, eds David Wood and Robert Bernasconi(Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1988), 1–8.

LOB ‘Living On: Border Lines’, trans. J. Hulbert, in Deconstructionand Criticism, ed. Geoffrey Hartman (New York: Seabury Press,1979), 75–176.

LOR ‘The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration’, inFor Nelson Mandela, eds Jacques Derrida and Mustpaha Tlili(New York: Seaver Books/Henry Holt, 1987).

LSS ‘Like the Sound of the Sea Deep within a Shell: Paul de Man’sWar’, trans. Peggy Kamuf, Critical Inquiry 14:3 (1988), 590–652.

MCF ‘Mochlos; or, The Conflict of the Faculties’, trans. RichardRand and Amy Wygant, in Logomachia: the Conflict of theFaculties, ed. Richard Rand (Lincoln: University of NebraskaPress, 1992), 1–34.

MP Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1982).

MPD Mémoires: For Paul de Man, trans. Cecile Lindsay, JonathanCuller, Eduardo Cadava (New York: Columbia University Press,1989).

OAT ‘Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy’,trans. J. P. Leavey, Oxford Literary Review 6:2 (1984), 3–37.

OG Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri C. Spivak (Baltimore: JohnsHopkins University Press, 1976).

xiv Abbreviations

OH The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael B. Naas (Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1992).

OS Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question, trans. Geoffrey Benningtonand Rachel Bowlby (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1989).

PA ‘Passions: an Oblique Offering’, trans. David Wood, in Derrida:a Critical Reader, ed. David Wood (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1992).

PAF ‘Politics and Friendship: an Interview with Jacques Derrida’, inThe Althusserian Legacy, eds Anne E. Kaplan and MichaelSprinker (London: Verso, 1993), 183–231.

PF ‘The Politics of Friendship’, Journal of Philosophy 75:11 (1988),632–45.

PFSF The Postcard: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond, trans. Alan Bass(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

POF Politics of Friendship, trans. George Collins (London: Verso,1997).

POI Points: Interviews, 1974–94, ed. Elisabeth Weber, trans. PeggyKamuf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995).

POR ‘The Principle of Reason: the University in the Eyes of ItsPupils’, trans. Catherine Porter and Edward P. Morris, Diacritics13:3 (1983), 3–20.

POS Positions, trans. Alan Bass (London: Athlone, 1981).RLW ‘Racism’s Last Word’, trans. Peggy Kamuf, Critical Inquiry 12:1

(1985), 290–9.SM Specters of Marx: the State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and

the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf (London and NewYork: Routledge, 1994).

SN Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles/Eperons: les Styles de Nietzsche, trans.Barbara Harlow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).

SO ‘Sendoffs’, Yale French Studies 77 (1990), 7–43.SP Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of

Signs, trans. David B. Allison (Evanston, Ill.: NorthwesternUniversity Press, 1983).

TOJ ‘The Time Is Out of Joint’, trans. Peggy Kamuf, inDeconstruction is/in America: a New Sense of the Political, ed.Anselm Haverkamp (New York: New York University Press,1995), 14–38.

WD Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (London: Routledge andKegan & Paul, 1978).

Abbreviations xv