Derrida’s Deconstruction of the Subject: Writing, Self and Other : Writing, Self and Other

Derrida is one of the most influential, controversial and complex thinkers. The book offers a critical evaluation of deconstruction by focusing on the problematic of writing, self and other in the thought of Derrida. It examines how these concepts relate to one another in order to analyse systematically the influence that the concept of alterity has had in deconstructing a certain idea of subjectivity in Western metaphysics. Thea Bellou argues that Derrida’s intellectual project is to examine the fate of irreducible alterity within Western metaphysics. Hence, the question of the other remained Derrida’s most fundamental and constant intellectual engagement throughout his oeuvre. The book starts with the early works of Derrida where his notions of alterity and writing are embedded in his engagement with phenomenology. It ends with the last phase of Derrida’s work where he turns towards more concrete ethico-political situations, and increasingly adopts theological and messianic discourses, focusing on violence to the other, an ‘other-orientated’ notion of responsibility, and a ‘futural’ concept of democracy and politics. Cover 1 Table of Contents 7 9 List of Abbreviations 11 13 I. Introduction: The strategy of deconstruction 15 17 I.I Exiting phenomenology and the critique of Western metaphysics 15 17 I.II The problematic of writing and the subject 18 20 I.III The problematic of writing and the other 21 23 I.IV The problematic of writing and literature 26 28 I.V The strategy of deconstruction and ‘double writing’ 32 34 I.VI The strategy of deconstruction and the rejection of method 34 36 I.VII Scope and structure of the book 38 40 1. The reception of Derrida’s thought 43 45 1.1 Derrida and the question of writing 44 46 1.2 Derrida and the question of politics 49 51 1.3 Philosophy and the question of ethics 52 54 1.4 Gasché: variations on the theme of difference 55 57 1.5 Critical responses from analytical philosophy 61 63 1.6 Rorty: from the public philosopher to the private ironist 63 65 1.7 Frank: reading phenomenology otherwise than Derrida 64 66 1.8 Counter-narratives of subjectivity 66 68 2. The partial exit from phenomenology 69 71 2.1 The deconstruction of the concept of the sign in Western metaphysics 71 73 2.2 Husserl’s theory of the sign as expression and indication 75 77 2.3 Towards a philosophy of writing 81 83 2.4 Différance, Writing and Subjectivity 85 87 2.5 Différance and time 90 92 2.6 Implications for the concept of the subject 93 95 2.7 Concluding remarks 95 97 3. Beyond the subject - 1: Deconstruction and the Gay Science of indeterminacy 99 101 3.1 The age of Rousseau 100 102 3.2 Frivolity and the deconstruction of Condillac’s empiricism 105 107 3.3 Structure and the deconstruction of empiricism’s antipode 114 116 3.4 Rousseau: authenticity, representation and the threat of writing 121 123 3.5 Rousseau: the new logic of the supplement 124 126 3.6 Concluding remarks 134 136 4: Beyond the subject - 2: ‘Passages and departures towards the other’ 139 141 4.1 Outside the subject 141 143 4.2 The Questioning of the ‘proper’ 145 147 4.3 Deconstruction and the philosophies of the cogito 154 156 4.4 Derrida and Heidegger on the question of the subject 156 158 4.5 The positing of the subject in terms of ‘Who?’ 159 161 4.6 Autobiography, signature and subjectivity 161 163 4.7 Beyond Heidegger and Levinas 168 170 4.8 Critical responses 171 173 4.9 Concluding remarks 179 181 5. The other - 1: The deconstruction of the ‘fraternal other’ and the ‘original valley of the other’ 183 185 5.1 The problematic of the other and the thought of Levinas 186 188 5.2 The development of Derrida’s thought on the other 188 190 5.3 From the deconstruction of identity to the concept of the other 190 192 5.4 Into the labyrinth: the other and the deconstruction of representation 193 195 5.5 The concept of the other and its relation to repetition 196 198 5.6 Appropriation and critique: Levinas and the early and late Derrida 201 203 5.7 What is beyond the metaphysics of violence 204 206 5.8 Levinas, Husserl and the ‘alter ego’ 207 209 5.9 ‘The gift of the other’ 211 213 5.10 Alterity and sexual difference 212 214 6. The other - 2: The gift, the politics and ethics of responsibility, and the other 215 217 6.1 The politics of the other 215 217 6.2 The call and the asymmetrical relation between the self and the other 219 221 6.3 From narcissism to death 221 223 6.4 The cinder as the remains of memory 223 225 6.5 From the ghosts of politics to the politics of ghosts 224 226 6.6 From the death of the subject to the subject through death as promise 227 229 6.7 The politics of responsibility 229 231 6.8 The tear: beyond the visible and the invisible 233 235 6.9 The other as gift 238 240 6.10 The gift of time 240 242 6.11 The gift of death 243 245 6.12 Concluding remarks 249 251 7. Violence to the other: Religion, Hospitality and Forgiveness 253 255 7.1 Religion, faith, messianism and the other 255 257 7.2 Hospitality, cosmopolitics and violence to the other 260 262 7.3 Forgiveness and the other 267 269 7.4 Ricoeur and Derrida: On Forgiveness 273 275 7.5 Concluding remarks 286 288 8. Violence to the other: Limitrophy, animot, divanimality, the abyssal limit and the ends of Man 289 291 8.1 Under the gaze of the other 293 295 8.2 Animot: the trace and scent of the other 313 315 8.3 Radical Alterity: Divanimality and another thinking of life 322 324 8.4 Radical Otherness: Striking out being 325 327 8.5 Post-globalization, politics and ethics: Europe, sovereignty, fundamentalism and messianic vision 329 331 8.6 Concluding Remarks 333 335 9. Conclusion: The self: particularity, reflexivity and recognition 335 337 9.1 Benhabib: situating the self between the universal and the particular 336 338 9.2 Ricoeur: oneself as another 337 339 9.3 Taylor: the other, injunction andinter subjective recognition 341 343 9.4 Epilogue 342 344 Bibliography 345 347 Bibliographical Appendix 361 363 Introduction: the strategy of deconstruction -- The reception of derrida's thought -- The partial exit from phenomenology -- Beyond the subject -- Beyond the subject -- The other -- The other -- Violence to the other : religion, hospitality and forgiveness -- Violence to the other : limitrophy, animot, divanimality, the abyssal limit and the ends of man -- Epilogue -- Bibliography.;Derrida is one of the most influential, controversial and complex thinkers. The book offers a critical evaluation of deconstruction by focusing on the problematic of writing, self and other in the thought of Derrida. It examines how these concepts relate to one another in order to analyse systematically the influence that the concept of alterity has had in deconstructing a certain idea of subjectivity in Western metaphysics. Derrida is one of the most influential, controversial and complex thinkers. This book offers a critical evaluation of deconstruction by focusing on the problematic of writing, self and other in the thought of Derrida.