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October 10, 2004
Derrida & Me
Jacques Derrida has died.
When I was going to college, deconstruction was on the rise. This was before the disgrace of Paul de Man. I was uncomfortable with some of the extensions and pretentions of deconstruction, and the inclination of some of my teachers to make the act of reading equal to the actions of, say, Shakespeare, Wolff or Joyce. Still, I found that Derrida's perspective on reading provided a couple of extra items for the critic's toolkit. As long as you don't use his screwdriver as a hammer, the perspective he brings to reading can help you find things you may not have noticed before. The trick is not to let your interpretations get out of hand or pose as truth.
Posted by apc at October 10, 2004 11:32 PM
Comments
so true, so true
Posted by: Anonymous at June 16, 2005 09:22 PM