Derrida

Reddit post, 

leads to a reading group, Zoom meeting Thursdays at 7, 

and discord group.

First reading assignment is: Structure, sign and play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (1966) (PDF).

Jacques Derrida lived 1930 – 2004. He was born in Algeria and died in Paris. "In most of the Anglosphere, where analytic philosophy is dominant, Derrida's influence is most presently felt in literary studies due to his long standing interest in language and his association with prominent literary critics from his time at Yale." (All quotes are from Wikipedia)

"His parents named him "Jackie", "which they considered to be an American name", although he would later adopt a more "correct" version of his first name when he moved to Paris."

Derrida spent his youth in Algiers and in El-Biar. "On the first day of the school year in 1942, French administrators in Algeria—implementing anti-semitism quotas set by the Vichy government—expelled Derrida from his lycée. He secretly skipped school for a year rather than attend the Jewish lycée formed by displaced teachers and students, and also took part in numerous football competitions (he dreamed of becoming a professional player). In this adolescent period, Derrida found in the works of philosophers and writers (such as Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Gide) an instrument of revolt against family and society. His reading also included Camus and Sartre."

He moved to Paris in 1949. "At that time he prepared for his entrance exam to the prestigious École Normale Supérieure (ENS); after failing the exam on his first try, he passed it on the second, and was admitted in 1952." He went to the Husserl archives, did his masters and then passed his agregation exam 1956. "Derrida received a grant for studies at Harvard University, and he spent the 1956–57 academic year reading James Joyce's Ulysses at the Widener Library."

"During the Algerian War of Independence of 1954–1962, Derrida asked to teach soldiers' children in lieu of military service, teaching French and English from 1957 to 1959."

"Following the war, from 1960 to 1964, Derrida taught philosophy at the Sorbonne, where he was an assistant of Suzanne Bachelard (daughter of Gaston Bachelard), Georges Canguilhem, Paul Ricœur (who in these years coined the term hermeneutics of suspicion), and Jean Wahl."

"His wife, Marguerite, gave birth to their first child, Pierre, in 1963."

You can read the rest.

Professor Paul Fry explores two central Derridian works: "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences" and "Différance." Video

I love this lecture. He goes so fast, I have to pause. 

Paraphrasing: "The reason it's hard to read is because Deconstruction is an evasive tactic where you don't stand for any position that can be pinned down." Doesn't want to be described by a blanket term that can encompass it, what he calls a transcendental signifier. A crab like movement around an argument that can't be boiled down into a definite concept. Deconstruction is the repudiation that you can derive something from a few concepts. Derrida doesn't see himself as a literary critic, he doesn't believe in genera. You in a state of deconstruction. 

He talks about the Eiffel tower, Stevens' poem Anecdote of a Jar and the World Trade Center, all things that are centers without being a center. WTC is ephemeral. The Eiffel tower doesn't cause Paris, the jar doesn't create Tennessee, the WTC doesn't create New York. 

Anecdote of a Jar by Wallace Stevens

I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.

The jar was round upon the ground

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

There's a lot of undermining, Derrida points out that Claude Lévi-Strauss doesn't acknowledge Freud when discussing the oedipal complex, in a very oedipal way. It's too intense, lots of breaks listening to this lecture. 

The center is also not the center. Metaphysics is a successive appeal to a center. 

I think I like reading and learning about Derrida, not so much reading him because he's difficult. 

Videos I want to watch some:

Jacques Derrida: Differance by Mark Thorsby on YouTube 6.4 views.

Ellie Anderson has a video on Differance on YouTube has 3.4k views.

Derrida's Elsewhere YouTube 7.6 views.

Derrida (2002) YouTube 57 views