Table Of ContentREADING DERRIDA’S OF GRAMMATOLOGY
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Between Deleuze and Derrida, edited by Paul Patton and John Protevi
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Derrida’s Writing and Difference: A Reader’s Guide, Sarah Wood
Derrida, Literature and War, Sean Gaston
Derrida: A Guide for the Perplexed, Julian Wolfreys
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READING DERRIDA’S OF
GRAMMATOLOGY
EDITED BY
SEAN GASTON AND
IAN MACLACHLAN
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038
© Sean Gaston, Ian Maclachlan and Contributors, 2011
Derrida, Jacques. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
Of Grammatology © 1998 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted
with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
EISBN: 9781441179746
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reading Derrida’s Of grammatology / edited by
Sean Gaston and Ian Maclachlan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-4676-2 – ISBN 978-1-4411-5275-6
1. Derrida, Jacques. De la grammatologie. 2. Language and languages–
Philosophy. I. Gaston, Sean. II. Maclachlan, Ian, 1960–
P105.D533R43 2011
401–dc22
2010041951
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain
READING DERRIDA’S OF GRAMMATOLOGY
Derek Attridge J. Hillis Miller
Geoffrey Bennington Forbes Morlock
Timothy Clark Michael Naas
Clare Connors Jean-Luc Nancy
Paul Davies Nicholas Royle
Sean Gaston Ann Smock
Christopher Johnson Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Peggy Kamuf Michael Syrotinski
Ian Maclachlan Julian Wolfreys
Sarah Wood
CONTENTS
Prefatory Note and Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
Sean Gaston, Punctuations
Preface xxix
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Reading De la grammatologie
PART 1 WRITING BEFORE THE LETTER
1. The End of the Book and the Beginning of Writing 3
Christopher Johnson, Epoch, Event, Context 3
Michael Syrotinski, Origins: ‘the most original and
powerful ethnocentrism’ 5
Sean Gaston, Even Leibniz 10
Christopher Johnson, The Cybernetic Imaginary 11
Julian Wolfreys, Of Dark Sentences and Gnomes 14
Forbes Morlock, Deconstruction – A Little Note 22
Michael Syrotinski, From Etymology (etumos logos)
to Translation, via Badiou and Paulhan 23
Michael Naas, Pneumatology, Pneuma, Souffle, Breath 28
Sarah Wood, Good Writing 31
Ian Maclachlan, The Idea of the Book 32
Peggy Kamuf, A Certain Way of Inhabiting 36
2. Linguistics and Grammatology 38
J. Hillis Miller, Exergue 38
J. Hillis Miller, Brisure 41
J. Hillis Miller, Jeu 43
vii
CONTENTS
J. Hillis Miller, Trace 47
Nicholas Royle, Bizarre 51
Derek Attridge, The Arbitrary 58
Sean Gaston, Writing and World 68
Ian Maclachlan, Embarrassing Experience 70
Ann Smock, This Concept Destroys its Name 72
Ian Maclachlan, A Hinge 74
Ian Maclachlan, Something Other Than Finitude 76
3. Of Grammatology as a Positive Science 79
Christopher Johnson, Grammatology as a ‘Positive’ Science 79
Paul Davies, Why Leibniz? 81
Christopher Johnson, Writing in Evolution,
Evolution as ‘Writing’ 91
Peggy Kamuf, Grammatology as General Science 93
Forbes Morlock, Differance – A Little Note 95
Sarah Wood, The Constitution of Good and Bad Objects 96
Jean-Luc Nancy, L’ouverture blanche 98
Jean-Luc Nancy, Blank Opening 99
PART 2 NATURE, CULTURE, WRITING
1. The Violence of the Letter: From Lévi-Strauss to Rousseau 113
Michael Naas, Leurre, Lure, Delusion, Illusion 113
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-1 117
2. ‘. . . That Dangerous Supplement . . .’ 119
Michael Naas, Entamer, Entamé, To Initiate or Open Up,
to Breach or Broach 119
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-2 123
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-3 124
Peggy Kamuf, L’habitation des femmes 126
3. Genesis and Structure of the ‘Essay on the Origin
of Languages’ 129
3.1 The Place of the ‘Essay’ 129
Sean Gaston, Pity, Virtuality and Power 129
Clare Connors, Preference and Force 131
Peggy Kamuf, Being-in-Nature 133
Clare Connors, Dynamis and Energeia 134
viii
CONTENTS
3.2 Imitation 136
Ann Smock, Estampe 136
Geoffrey Bennington, Fractal Geography 137
Ann Smock, Accents 145
Forbes Morlock, The Copyist 147
Clare Connors, Articulation, Accent and Rhyme 149
3.3 Articulation 151
Michael Naas, Butades, the Invention of Drawing
and the ‘immediate sign’ 151
Peggy Kamuf, The Eye at the Centre of Language 154
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-4 158
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-5 159
Clare Connors, Presque 160
Timothy Clark, Climate and Catastrophe:
A Lost Opening? 161
Sarah Wood, The Point d’Eau or the Water-Holes
that are Imperceptibly Present in Writing 168
4. From/Of the Supplement to the Source:
The Theory of Writing 173
Sean Gaston, Kafka, Literature and Metaphor 173
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-6 175
Forbes Morlock, The Subject of Reading-7 175
Peggy Kamuf, On Naïveté 176
Ann Smock, Theatre Without Theatre 177
Sean Gaston, Periodicity 179
Peggy Kamuf, Habitation in General 181
Peggy Kamuf, ‘From somewhere where we are’ 182
Biographical Notes – Intervals 184
Contributors 195
Notes 196
Bibliography 206
Index 219
ix
