Memoirs of the blind : the self-portrait and other ruins

In this brilliant essay, Jacques Derrida explores issues of vision, blindness, self-representation, and their relation to drawing, while offering detailed readings of an extraordinary collection of images. Selected by Derrida from the prints and drawings department of the Louvre, the works depict blindness--fictional, historical, and biblical. From Old and New Testament scenes to the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon and the blinding of Polyphemus, Derrida uncovers in these images rich, provocative layers of interpretation. For Derrida drawing is itself blind; as an act rooted in memory and anticipation, drawing necessarily replaces one kind of seeing (direct) with another (mediated). Ultimately, he explains, the very lines which compose any drawing are themselves never fully visible to the viewer since they exist only in a tenuous state of multiple identities: as marks on a page, as indicators of a contour. Lacking a "pure" identity, the lines of a drawing summon the supplement of the word, of verbal discourse, and, in doing so, obscure the visual experience. Consequently, Derrida demonstrates, the very act of depicting a blind person undertakes multiple enactments and statements of blindness and sight. __Memoirs of the Blind__ is both a sophisticated philosophical argument and a series of detailed readings. Derrida provides compelling insights into famous and lesser known works, interweaving analyses of texts--including Diderot's __Lettres sur les aveugles__, the notion of mnemonic art in Baudelaire's __The Painter of Modern__ __Life__, and Merleau-Ponty's __The Visible and the__ __Invisible__. Along with engaging meditations on the history and philosophy of art, Derrida reveals the ways viewers approach philosophical ideas through art, and the ways art enriches philosophical reflection. An exploration of sight, representation, and art, __Memoirs of the Blind__ extends and deepens the meditation on vision and painting presented in __Truth and__ __Painting__. Readers of Derrida, both new and familiar, will profit from this powerful contribution to the study of the visual arts. An exploration of issues of vision, blindness, self-representation, and their relation to drawing, which offers detailed readings of a collection of images from the prints and drawings department of the Louvre. The works under consideration depict blindness--fictional, historical, and biblical. Cover Title Page Copyright CONTENTS Translators' Preface Memoirs of the Blind List of Illustrations Blank Page Blank Page