Enduring Resistance / La Résistance persévère: Cultural Theory after Derrida / La théorie de la culture (d’)après Derrida

338 Pages·2010·1.78 MB·English

by  Sjef Houppermans

Enduring Resistance:
Cultural Theory after Derrida
La Résistance persévère:
la théorie de la culture
(d’)après Derrida
FAUX TITRE
348
Etudes de langue et littérature françaises
publiées sous la direction de
Keith Busby, †M.J. Freeman,
Sjef Houppermans et Paul Pelckmans
Enduring Resistance:
Cultural Theory after Derrida
La Résistance persévère:
la théorie de la culture
(d’)après Derrida
Edited by / Edité par
Sjef Houppermans
Rico Sneller
Peter van Zilfhout
AMSTERDAM - NEW YORK, NY 2010
Illustration cover / illustration couverture: Lavis de Colette Deblé (30 x 40).
À partir du tableau d’Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Étude pour une
scène de déluge. Photographie de Mickaël Bandela et Elisa San José.
Tiré de Prégnances par Jacques Derrida.
Lavis et Peintures de Colette Deblé.
L’Atelier des Brisants Éditeur, 2004.
Édition Originale. 14 X 18 cm. 122 pages.
Quatre-vingt-dix reproductions couleurs des travaux de Colette Deblé.
Cover design: Pier Post.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence’.
Le papier sur lequel le présent ouvrage est imprimé remplit les prescriptions
de ‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents -
Prescriptions pour la permanence’.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3030-5
E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-3031-2
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010
Printed in The Netherlands
Table of Contents / Table des matières

Introduction (English) 7
Introduction (Français) 15
Summaries / Résumés 23
Authors / Auteurs 31

PART(IE) I : MANOEUVRES
Paul Bowman
Deconstruction is a Martial Art 37

Eberhard Gruber
Quel héritage quand le message est équivoque?
Une difficulté décisive pour la
transmission derridienne 57

Peter van Zilfhout
Traces of Nihilism 99

PART(IE) II : SOCIETIES / SOCIÉTÉS

Joost de Bloois
The Last Instance: Deconstruction
as General Economy 121

Maik Herold
Symbolic Representation and Différance.
Jacques Derrida and the Problem
of Validity in Constitutional Theory 139

Tom Cohen
“Climate Change,” Deconstruction, and the
Rupture of Cultural Critique.
A proleptic preamble 167
Rey Chow
Reading Derrida on being monolingual 193

PART(IE) III : IMAGES

Ginette Michaud
Jacques Derrida, les Yeux Bandés ou Lire
à l’épreuve de l’invisibilité 215

Michel Lisse
Iconographies de Jacques Derrida 245

Marc De Kesel
Noli Me Tangere
Critical Remarks on Jean-Luc Nancy’s
Reference to Derridian Deconstruction 255

PART(IE) IV : FICTIONS

Mireille Calle-Gruber
Les Écritures du « comme si »
Héritage de Derrida 281

Rico Sneller
A Contemporary Maskil Sarfat?
Derrida and the Provence Cabbala 295

Sjef Houppermans
A l’ombre des Roses de Personne
Jacques Derrida et Paul Celan 315

General Bibliography 333
Introduction

Addressing both the humanities and the social sciences, this volume
aims to explore the enduring significance of the work of Jacques Der-
rida (1930-2004) in the field of cultural theory. It assembles a variety
of articles by internationally renowned scholars from different aca-
demic disciplines and traditions. Contrary to recent commemorative
publications on Derrida’s oeuvre, this volume proposes to critically
evaluate and rethink key concepts in Derrida’s work within the present
state of affairs in cultural theory. Centred around four main topics
(manoeuvres, societies, images and fictions), the sections propose a
creative and contemporary reading of ‘Derrida’ and its openings to
new work in cultural theory.

The central thesis of the volume is that Derrida’s thought has un-
doubtedly, at a fundamental level, helped to shape the domain of
cultural theory. Within the field of that theory the possible readings
and uses of Derrida’s work have also been defined rather narrowly,
following a conceptual and political agenda to which Derrida’s
thinking cannot – or cannot exclusively – be reduced. This volume
begins at the aspects of his work that have only been accounted for
partially, or that might even resist premises of contemporary cultural
theory. In particular, the essays focus on
– 1. Current conceptualisations of Otherness with a Derridean legacy
– 2. The question “What is the object of cultural theory?”
– 3. Possible alternatives to the ethical and political (emancipatory)
models in Derrida’s work that dominate cultural theory
– 4. Culture and art as an assembly of supplementary practices
– 5. Interpretation after Derrida

Derrida’s thinking presents a dual resistance to closure – not in the
least to its own closure – in, or by current critical practice. If Derrid-
ean figures of thought and concepts have been frequently used to
shape a variety of critical practices that see themselves as forms of
resistance, then the resistance to use Derrida’s work has rarely been
explored. Rethinking cultural theory from this ‘resistance-within’ will
allow not only for a reappraisal of Derrida’s work, but it will also lead
to new directions within the larger field of cultural theory, particularly
8 Introduction
when insisting on an openness to the resistance of the object of analy-
sis: culture. It is here that Derrida’s enduring legacy may possess a
distinctly political charge.

Rather than continuing to contribute to the current status quo in cul-
tural thought, then, this volume wants to explore how the legacy of, or
within Derrida’s work, offers the possibility of re-considering the
notion and practice of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural theory’. For instance,
Derrida’s thinking of the spectre, instead of thinking about meaning in
terms of something that escapes us, may lead us to think of meaning
coming towards us, and spectrally haunting us, from the past. In this
respect, it will be worthwhile to frame the question of cultural history
differently. In general, the volume explores the many possible uses of
the notion of ‘legacy’ after Derrida.

Shortly after Derrida’s death in 2004, a number of publications, shar-
ing a commemorative character, have seen the light of day. This vol-
ume goes well beyond commemoration and proposes a creative
reading of and dealing with Derrida’s legacies in cultural theory at
large.

Competing English-language volumes are:

Tom Cohen (ed.), Jacques Derrida and the Humanities: A Critical
Reader [Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002]. This collection of essays
focuses mainly on Derrida’s significance for literary studies and con-
sists of non-critical readings by renowned Derrida-scholars.

Michael Naas, Taking on the Tradition: Jacques Derrida and the
Legacies of Deconstruction [Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003]. Naas’
book is in fact a collection of earlier essays spanning the last two dec-
ades. It consists of readings of Derrida’s work but omits a reflection
on the future impact on cultural theory, despite its title. Naas’ Derrida
from now on [Fordham University Press, 2008] is before all a critical
view on contemporary America.

Sean Gaston, The Impossible Mourning of Jacques Derrida [London:
Continuum, 2006]. Gaston’s book has a strong commemorative char-
Introduction 9
acter and mixes personal reminiscences of Derrida with an analysis of
the concept of ‘mourning’ in Derrida’s work.

Jason Powell, Jacques Derrida: A Biography [London: Continuum,
2007]. Powell’s book is an attempted biography of Derrida, but in fact
constitutes an introductory reading of Derrida’s main works.

W.T.J. Mitchell (ed.), The Late Derrida [Chicago: Chicago UP, 2007].
This work proposes a series of readings of Derrida’s later works, and
also presents individual readings of recent texts by Derrida without
addressing the question of Derrida’s impact on contemporary and
future critical theory.

Ian Balfour (ed.), Late Derrida. A special volume of The South Atlan-
tic Quarterly published by Duke University Press, March 2007. This
volume gives the floor to well-known Derrida scholars who expand on
previous works but who also do not address the question of Derrida’s
impact on contemporary and future critical theory.

Despite the merit of the above titles in Derrida-scholarship, they fail to
think beyond the limits of the corpus of works constituting derridean
thought. They also remain commemorative on more than one level:
They remain situated within (the corpus of) Derrida’s work and if and
when they address the potential of this work, they remain within the
paradigms set out by it.

Between 2007 and 2010 a large quantity of critical studies has been
published on different aspects of Derrida’s persona and thought.
Within the scope of the present project we mention e.g. David Mikics’
Who was Jacques Derrida?: an intellectual biography [Yale Univer-
sity Press, 2009] and For Derrida by Joseph Hillis Miller [Fordham
University Press, 2009]. The most important publication until now
might well be Nicholas Royle’s In Memory of Jacques Derrida
[Edinburgh University Press, 2009], where the central place of
literature and a real empathy play a preeminent role. Simon Glendin-
ning offers a collection of essays by 14 of the most distinguished
English and American ‘derridians’ in Derrida’s Legacies: Literature
and Philosophy [Routledge, 2008]. The book aims to provide “a rich
and faithful context for thinking about the significance of Derrida’s