Postmodern
Jacques Derrida
1930 – 2004
French philosopher (1930–2004)
- France
- European Theory & Influence
- Deconstruction
- Poststructuralism
- post-structuralism
- Literary Theory
About
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he applied in some of his texts, and which he developed through close readings of the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy although he distanced himself from post-structuralism and disavowed the word "postmodernity".
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Portrait by Pablosecca (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.
Life on the Timeline
Major Works
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Exam Dossier
Most-asked topics
- Deconstruction as a critical strategy
- Différance and the play of signification
- Critique of logocentrism and phonocentrism
- "Il n'y a pas de hors-texte" and textuality
- Derrida's reading of Saussure's linguistics
- The Yale School and Anglo-American deconstruction
- Derrida vs Structuralism/Post-structuralism debate
- Trace, supplement, and presence/absence
Previous-year themes
- Definition and etymology of 'deconstruction' and différance
- Derrida's 1966 Johns Hopkins lecture and its impact on structuralism
- Derrida's critique of Western metaphysics of presence
- Relationship between Derrida and the Yale School critics
- Key terms: trace, supplement, iterability, hors-texte
- Derrida's engagement with Saussure, Husserl, and Rousseau
- Distinguishing deconstruction from structuralism and New Criticism
Common confusions
- Confusing Derrida (post-structuralism/deconstruction) with Ferdinand de Saussure (founder of structuralist linguistics that Derrida critiques).
- Treating 'deconstruction' as a synonym for 'destruction'; it is a strategy of critical reading, not demolition.
- Confusing Derrida's 'différance' with the ordinary French word 'différence' — the former is a coined term visible only in writing.
- Mixing up Derrida's Yale School associates (de Man, Hartman, J. Hillis Miller) with the earlier New Critics (Brooks, Warren, Ransom).
- Attributing 'the death of the author' to Derrida instead of Roland Barthes.
- Confusing 'logocentrism' (privileging of logos/presence) with 'phallogocentrism' (a related but distinct feminist-inflected coinage extending the critique to patriarchal structures).
Memory tricks
DERRIDA = DE-construct RIgid DIchotomies Always (reminds that he dismantles binary oppositions).
Différance: 'A' is silent, like writing itself — you can't hear the difference, you can only read it.
1967 = 'Year of Three': Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, Speech and Phenomena all appeared in 1967.
Yale School mnemonic: 'De Man Hunts Miller's Bloom' (de Man, Hartman, Miller, Bloom).
Hors-texte: 'Horse outside the text' — nothing exists OUTSIDE (hors) the text.
Pharmakon = both cure and poison — remember 'pharmacy' has both healing drugs and dangerous ones.
