Work · Structuralism & Poststructuralism
Signature Event Context
Iterability: every utterance can be quoted – against Austin's exclusion of the “non-serious”.
Introduction
Derrida gave the lecture in Montreal in August 1971 at a congress of French-speaking philosophical societies on the theme of communication; it appeared in Margins of Philosophy (1972). He argues that writing functions in the absence of its sender and receiver, and that this holds for every sign: a mark can always be repeated and cited in new contexts. Austin’s theory of performatives, which excludes quotation and theatre as “parasitic”, therefore misses a structural feature of language. The essay ends with a reproduction of Derrida’s signature. Its English translation in 1977 provoked a reply by John Searle and Derrida’s long rejoinder “Limited Inc”.
Connections
Criticizes
- How to Do Things with Words1962 · J. L. Austin
Taken up in
- Bodies That Matter1993 · Judith Butler
Answered in
- Reiterating the Differences: A Reply to Derrida1977 · John Searle
More works by Jacques Derrida
- 1967Of Grammatology
- 1968Plato's Pharmacy
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Linguistic Turn’ · Stop 8 of 10
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