Legacies of Derrida

Annual Review of Anthropology, 2007

This article considers the legacies of Jacques Derrida in and for Anglo-American sociocultural anthropology. It begins with a survey of Derrida's own engagement with themes that have historically been foundational to the field: (a) the critique of sign theory and, with it, the questions of language and law in Lévi-Straussian structuralism; (b) the question of the unconscious; (c) the critique of the performative and its consequences for the idea of ritual; (d) the rereading of Marcel Mauss's concept of the gift, and of economy more generally; and (e) the analysis of the metaphysical basis of law, in both religious and ostensibly secular formations. It then considers the state of the field at the time when it was being infused with different forms of poststructuralism and explores the competing claims made by these discourses in relation to deconstruction. Finally, after tracing the convergences and divergences between Derridean deconstruction and theory in sociocultural anth...

Anthropological Quarterly, 2005

Cambridge History of French Thought

This chapter offers an overview of Jacques Derrida’s contributions to philosophy and related disciplines. Following a brief biographical résumé, the chapter provides an overview of some of the central ideas running through Derrida’s philosophy of deconstruction. Looking especially to Derrida’s conception of alterity, it offers an assessment of the ethics of deconstruction as well as a summation of Derrida’s reflections on politics and political philosophy. The chapter further provides an account of the reception of Derrida’s work, both in France and internationally. It looks in particular to key debates with John R. Searle, Jurgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault as well as more recent arguments centred upon the political limitations of Derrida’s work amongst some contemporary neo-Marxist political theorists. It is argued that Derrida’s corpus is amongst the most influential bodies of work for twentieth century Humanities and Social Sciences scholarship.

Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities, 2021

This paper is designed to reveal some of the philosophical ideas of Algerian-born philosopher Jacques Derrida. Jacques Derrida, a leading figure of Post-structuralism and Postmodernism is best known as the founding father of ‘Deconstruction’ but many of his philosophical ideas such as, logocentrism, differance, phonocentrism, aporia, anti-representationalism, etc. still remain rarely focused. Therefore, in this paper the researcher has tried to explore various philosophical ideas of Derrida before the readers to get acquainted with Derrida’s contribution to the world of knowledge. This research work has done with the help of both primary sources i.e., original writings of Derrida and secondary sources including the texts written by others. Here, all of Derrida’s ideas are explicitly described and justified by an inductive method. Finally, a concluding remark on deconstruction has been made by comparing Derrida’s idea of “Differance” with Nagarjuna’s concept of “Emptiness” which left...

World Literature Studies, 2024

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between performativity and literature in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. It argues that the performativity of literature, which consists in the structural perversion of the force of language, underlies democratic forms of dissidence such as strike and protest. In this sense, protecting that strange institution called literature is crucial for safeguarding democracy and deconstructing the principle of sovereignty. The anarchy of force unleashed by literature constitutes a disruptive element of sovereignty, conceived as “self-performative”.

Filocracia: An Online Journal of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, 2014

The necessity of questioning the privileged spaces of power—be it personal, social, political, or religious—is a demand intrinsic to philosophy’s very own structure. In this paper, an identification of the thinking and the practice of subversion with the essence of philosophy is undertaken as a response to the challenge of intellectual sterilization brought about by the insidious effects of an omnipresent techno-capitalism and academic complicity. In particular, I will discuss Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction as a fertile example of a subversive ethos that refuses to be complicit with the powers-that-be but transgresses the complacent order of the present so as to achieve an opening for a more just relation to the “other” of thinking that has always been marginalized by history and the philosophical tradition. If philosophy is to remain true to its originary inspiration, then, it must remain vigilant to the various moments and forms of fossilizations of power and truth. The achievement of a critical position ownmost to philosophy is incumbent to us: i.e., as a radical refusal to be complicit with the present effects of power and a continuous cultivation of an ethos of writing and thinking that does not concede its loyalty to anything, even to philosophy. Keywords: Jacques Derrida, deconstruction, politics, subversion, ethos of thinking