Lit Theory - Derrida - On Grammatology

Jacques Derrida

1.     On Grammatology

a.     There are three different stages that demonstrate civilization:

                                               i.     Depicting of objects is appropriate to the savage people.

                                             ii.     Signs of words and propositions to barbaric people.

                                            iii.     Alphabets to civilized people.

1.     Alphabetic is the most intelligent.

                                            iv.     Logo centrism: The metaphysics of phonetic writing.

1.     The concept of writing.

2.     The history of metaphysics.

3.     The concept of science.

                                             v.     Grammatology:  The science of writing.

b.     A writer is subject to the system of language and a reader is subject to the system of language.

                                               i.     The writer writes in a system of logic and laws.

                                             ii.     The writer can let himself go up until he hits these laws.

                                            iii.     The writer writes to what he commands and what he doesn’t command.

                                            iv.     The writer writes a signifying structure that critical thinking should produce.

1.     Produce: The task of reading.

c.     Doubling of commentary: The intentionality of the writer coupled with the history of language.

                                               i.     People need critical theory and criticism to recognize and respect writing.

                                             ii.     There is nothing outside of the text.

d.     Language encompass more than literature.

                                               i.     It includes the philosopher, the historian, and the theologian.

e.     The writer cannot separate themself from the systems of writing.  This causes some problems.

                                               i.     Psychoanalytic theory belongs to culture and history.  The reader, nor writer, is able to operate with any complete neutrality.

                                             ii.     There maybe different interpretations of the text.

                                            iii.     There are texts difficult to classify or understand.  One must go outside the normal to interpret.

1.     We might need to interpret something by what it is not.

2.     Plato’s Pharmacy

a.     Plato speaks well of play.

                                               i.     The best sense falling within the safeguards of ethics and politics.

                                             ii.     Only words about real things can be taken seriously.

1.     Play dissipates when transformed into words.

2.     Play is lost when it seeks salvation in games.

                                            iii.     Issues with writing must come to terms with:

1.     A generalized sort of writing.

2.     A contradiction.

3.     The construction of a literary work.

                                            iv.     What distinguishes dialectics from grammar.

1.     Linguistic units are greater than the word.

2.     Dialectics is guided by the intention of the truth.

                                             v.     The disappearance of truth as presence is the condition of all truth.

1.     Nontruth is the truth.

2.     Nonpresence is presence.

  

Works Cited

Derrida, Jacques. On Grammatology. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  1680-1697. Print.

--- . Plato’s Pharmacy. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  1729-1734. Print.