Roundtable Discussion Structure, Sign and Play - Jacques Derrida
Roundtable Discussion
Structure, Sign and Play - Jacques Derrida
‘Structure, Sign and Play’, is a paper which involves the author - Derrida, encouraging the use of several different perspectives to view a concept. In doing so, he is able to find a common ground between different viewpoints whilst finding new ways of thinking against a classical perspective. Derrida finds a way to put an argument (against old concepts) into a correspondence within themselves whilst introducing his own concepts that oppose the notions of previous thinkers. This seems to tie-in with the the post-modern spirit - finding new ways to view ideas which are constantly moving around.
Derrida 's essay can be broken down into a number of discrete yet well connected sections, with the main body of the paper surrounding exploration the work of Claude Levi-Strauss.
The essay begins with a focal point - speculation surrounding changes in structuralism - 'perhaps something has occurred in the history of the concept of structure that could be called an event '. Derrida is suggesting that despite always having informed western thinking, the structurally of structures is a largely under examined subject matter and this is one example of where Derrida tries to makes the implicit, explicit, to the reader.
The author begins by directly the meaning of the word ‘event’, suggesting it is too concrete to be used when describing structure. However, he continues to use this word (enclosed in quotation marks) to talk about a past occurrence surrounding the changes in structure he wants to describe. This event is identified as ‘rupture’ and ‘redoubling’ but the rupture of what exactly, is unclear to the reader and does not become known until later on in the essay when these phrases are repeated and explained.
Derrida analyzes the structure of language by using the notion of a stabilizing ‘center ' which controls it by ‘balancing and organizing’ it. Derrida again, tries to implicitly explain this
Structure, Sign and Play - Jacques Derrida
‘Structure, Sign and Play’, is a paper which involves the author - Derrida, encouraging the use of several different perspectives to view a concept. In doing so, he is able to find a common ground between different viewpoints whilst finding new ways of thinking against a classical perspective. Derrida finds a way to put an argument (against old concepts) into a correspondence within themselves whilst introducing his own concepts that oppose the notions of previous thinkers. This seems to tie-in with the the post-modern spirit - finding new ways to view ideas which are constantly moving around.
Derrida 's essay can be broken down into a number of discrete yet well connected sections, with the main body of the paper surrounding exploration the work of Claude Levi-Strauss.
The essay begins with a focal point - speculation surrounding changes in structuralism - 'perhaps something has occurred in the history of the concept of structure that could be called an event '. Derrida is suggesting that despite always having informed western thinking, the structurally of structures is a largely under examined subject matter and this is one example of where Derrida tries to makes the implicit, explicit, to the reader.
The author begins by directly the meaning of the word ‘event’, suggesting it is too concrete to be used when describing structure. However, he continues to use this word (enclosed in quotation marks) to talk about a past occurrence surrounding the changes in structure he wants to describe. This event is identified as ‘rupture’ and ‘redoubling’ but the rupture of what exactly, is unclear to the reader and does not become known until later on in the essay when these phrases are repeated and explained.
Derrida analyzes the structure of language by using the notion of a stabilizing ‘center ' which controls it by ‘balancing and organizing’ it. Derrida again, tries to implicitly explain this
References: "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences". Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass. London: Routledge, pp 278 - 294