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Introduction

Introduction interrogate, to read with varying measures of gratitude and critique, the late or later work of Jacques Derrida. And to read these texts now that Derrida is “late.” Does it make any difference for the reading of texts by Derrida that now their author is dead? Was not the author always already divorced from his texts, “writing” being famously identified since Plato, not least via Derrida’s own analysis, with death and absence and thus able to—indeed forced to—function in the absence of their author, since he would always be, after a fashion, dead in relation to them and they dead in relation to him? This could well be. Yet especially for those indebted to Derrida’s writing, his teaching, and his lectures, there is perhaps something new in this new absence of Derrida, especially his no longer being able to respond, to write, to speak. Derrida was tireless in responding to his—and not just his—porous community, publicly and, to an extraordinary degree, privately. Now we are left to write, think, South Atlantic Quarterly 106:2, Spring 2007 doi 10.1215/00382876-2006-021 © 2007 Duke University Press 206 Ian Balfour and talk among ourselves. The tasks of reading, thinking, writing, and acting remain, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png South Atlantic Quarterly Duke University Press

Introduction

Balfour, Ian
South Atlantic Quarterly , Volume 106 (2) – Apr 1, 2007
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2007 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0038-2876
eISSN
1527-8026
DOI
10.1215/00382876-2006-021
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

interrogate, to read with varying measures of gratitude and critique, the late or later work of Jacques Derrida. And to read these texts now that Derrida is “late.” Does it make any difference for the reading of texts by Derrida that now their author is dead? Was not the author always already divorced from his texts, “writing” being famously identified since Plato, not least via Derrida’s own analysis, with death and absence and thus able to—indeed forced to—function in the absence of their author, since he would always be, after a fashion, dead in relation to them and they dead in relation to him? This could well be. Yet especially for those indebted to Derrida’s writing, his teaching, and his lectures, there is perhaps something new in this new absence of Derrida, especially his no longer being able to respond, to write, to speak. Derrida was tireless in responding to his—and not just his—porous community, publicly and, to an extraordinary degree, privately. Now we are left to write, think, South Atlantic Quarterly 106:2, Spring 2007 doi 10.1215/00382876-2006-021 © 2007 Duke University Press 206 Ian Balfour and talk among ourselves. The tasks of reading, thinking, writing, and acting remain,

Journal

South Atlantic Quarterly – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2007

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