Modern & Contemporary France Volume 23 Issue 1 2015 [Doi 10.1080%2F09639489.2014.921605] Inston, Kevin -- Derrida's Deconstruction of the Subject- Writing, Self and Other
Derridas Deconstruction of the Subject: than challenging the hierarchical binary.
Writing, Self and Other The other comes to occupy the privileged THEA BELLOU position once assumed by the self. The Berne, Peter Lang, 2013 362 pp., 66.00, pbk, ISBN: 978 3-03-431425-1 subject, if not destroyed by the transcen- dental other, gets subsumed by it, so utterly Thea Bellous Derridas Deconstruction of subjected to its injunction that it loses all the Subject: Writing, Self and Other agency. This absolute dependence on the critically examines Derridas engagement transcendental other, Bellou affirms, elim- with the question of the subject and its inates violence (221). This affirmation relation to alterity from the early writings would suggest a degree of closure at odds on phenomenology to the later ones on with the openness normally associated ethics and politics. Throughout these with Derridas thought. The other deter- writings, Derrida, Bellou argues, insists mines or overdetermines the subject, on the irreducibility of otherness to providing the source of response, respon- deconstruct the Western metaphysical sibility and freedom. Derridas privileging conception of the subject as self-presence of radical alterity sidesteps, Bellou con- and self-identity. Her assertion that radical cludes, the question of embodied subjects alterity remains a central preoccupation or intersubjectivity, lacking the subtlety of for Derrida comes as no surprise. She also the reflection of other theorists (Ricoeur, repeats the common accusation that his Benhabib, Taylor et al.). However, it is thinking does away with the subject or the perhaps Bellous reading that lacks self (terms which Bellou never entirely subtlety, overlooking Derridas analysis of distinguishes), by reducing it to the the undecidability of the self other differing and deferring play of language relation. Derrida does not invert the which disrupts mastery and identity. The power structure of that relation, as Bellou book moves into slightly less familiar implies, but analyses how self and other territory when it argues that Derrida mutually inhabit one another while writes off the metaphysical subject only remaining irreducible to one another. to allow it to return in the inverted form of The self cannot move outside itself to the other. The absolute other increasingly embrace otherness fully: its understanding resembles the absolute subject of Western of the other is always mediated by its own metaphysics . . . Derrida merely effects a experiences. For the same reason, it cannot transference of power rather than a radical achieve self-presence, remaining perma- break with the metaphysical residues of nently marked by an alterity which exceeds logos (220). His thought allegedly fails to it. Alterity comes from the differance or deconstruct itself, merely reversing rather temporal finitude which leaves self and 112 Book Reviews other forever open to change for better or 400th anniversary of the founding of worse. Differance forecloses complete Quebec. Richly illustrated, it takes the identification, rendering any identity form of conference proceedings which aim unstable and unpredictable. Who or what to explore and compare the history of the other is remains in question. This archives and museums in France and openness exposes us to the potentially Canada from a variety of different violating effects of alterity and, in so doing, perspectives with contributions from provides the non-ethical foundation of academics, curators, archivists and special- ethics. If I were certain that the other would ists of cultural history. As the editors never harm me, if I were certain that I indicate in their introduction, this is would not harm the other, the need to a fascinating and potentially polemical decide how to respond, to take responsi- comparison: not only because the origins bility], the need for ethics tout court, would and history of museums differ greatly in disappear. Derridas insistence on undecid- Europe and the Americas, but also because ability refutes Bellous reading of his of different approaches to exhibiting philosophy as an injunction to submit narratives of national identity, particularly unconditionally to the other. It enables between universalist France and multi- decision and responsibility; it creates the culturalist Canada. However, the editors conditions of (im)possibility for the agency also underline that the importance of the of the subject which his reflection allegedly history of cultural exchange between effaces. So while Bellous book is ambitious France and North America over the last in scope and participates in a broader five centuries should not be downplayed debate about the praxis of deconstruction, and this volume contributes to the writing its central argument, to my mind, ignores of this history. The metaphor of theatre, how Derridas philosophy rigorously resists present in the books title and explained in any hierarchical conception of self and the introduction, underpins the books other and thereby fails to offer a sufficiently structure and its division into four acts. nuanced interpretation of his work. The first act, Les coulisses du patri- moine, contains four chapters. The first KEVIN INSTON two concentrate on archival history, University College London practice and exchange between France q 2014 Kevin Inston and Canada, establishing some interest- http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2014.921605 ing tensions to do with tradition, experience and innovation. The meticu- lously researched third and fourth Archives et musees: Le theatre du patrimoine chapters will be invaluable for specialists (France-Canada) in their respective areas: importexport YVES BERGERON & VANESSA FEREY (Eds) Paris, Comite des travaux historiques et of art works between France and Canada scientifiques, 2013 in the latter half of the twentieth century 384 pp., e35.00, pbk, ISBN: 978 2-73-550790-0 and books in vernacular (French) con- tained in religious libraries in the four- This wide-ranging book emerges from teenth and fifteenth centuries. It is a series of conferences celebrating the unclear, however, how the latter is Copyright of Modern & Contemporary France is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.