White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy

Author(s): Jacques Derrida and F. C. T. Moore

Reviewed work(s):
Source: New Literary History, Vol. 6, No. 1, On Metaphor (Autumn, 1974), pp. 5-74
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/468341 .
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 WhiteMythology:*

Metaphorin theText of Philosophy

JacquesDerrida

Note from the translator: "Here is a parody of the translator,"writesM.

Derrida. It is a truismthat translationis impossible,or at least a treachery.
Indeed, it is the piety of the translatorto say so. In this case, however,
the dilemma is more acute. It is not merely that M. Derrida's style is
peculiarly elaborate and difficult-it is that his topic (if we allow the
of which translationprovides an evident
distinction) itselfraises difficulties
example. The question of metaphor, as M. Derrida shows, is at the heart
of those very general questions concerning the relations of language,
thought,and reality. Now the supposed task of the translatoris to discern
the thought of a text in one language (and the realitywhich it claims to
put before us), and to express the same thought in another language.
The deeply problematic nature of these notions is a chief concern of the
present article. It is thereforewith more than the usual insistence that
I enter here the translator'sconventional warning and apology.
In particular, the reader should take note of the following points:
i. Intelligible English renderingshave generally been preferredto direct
transfersinto English of M. Derrida's suggestiveexploitation of nuances
of French vocabulary. This results inevitably in some loss of the force
of the original. Here are some examples:
-The heading of the introductorypart of the article (here translated
"On the Obverse") is "Exergue," a word which in English as in French
has a technical numismatic meaning (the part of the coin where the
date, the engraver'sinitials and so forthare inscribed), but in French also
has an idiomatic use, as in the phrase "mettre en exergue"-"to display,
bring to the fore." The effectivenessof the termfor M. Derrida's purposes
in the introductorysection cannot be captured in English.
-Among other examples of metonymy,M. Derrida gives the example
of the French word robe used of the judiciary. This, and one or two
similar examples, have simply been omitted.
-The termspropre and proprie'te',a frequentand central topic of dis-
cussion, are problematic. The English word proper is importantlyless
versatile than propre: proper name is normal English for nom propre,
but une qualite propre would more naturally be a distinctivequality, and
un sens propre would only with some strain be a proper rather than a
* This essay originally
appeared as "La mythologieblanche," Poetique, 5 (1971).

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6 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

literalsense. Strainhas been preferred

in thiscase, so that the strategic
role of "the proper" in the argument may remain manifest.
-Similar considerationsapply to the terms figure,valeur, prob-
in spiteof some
are oftenpreferred,
literaltranslations
Ieimatique:again,
strain.
2. Quotationsand references
are givenaccordingto Englishoriginalsor
Englishtranslations
whereconvenientlyavailable,thoughsome modifica-
tions to these translationshave been made in view of M. Derrida's use of
the texts in question. For instance, the expression "white mythology"
itselffrightened
Anatole France's Englishtranslatorinto a periphrasis.

I. On the Obverse

HILOSOPHY. . . and fromphilosophy,rhetoric.From a book-

roughly and more or less a book-to create a flower,and to
create it here, to bring it forth,to mount it, rather-to let it
mount and find its dawning (and it turnsaside as though of itself,
revoluted,some grave flower). Followingthe reckoningof a lapidary,
we learn to cultivatepatience....
Metaphor in the text of philosophy. We might be confidentof
understanding everyword of thisphrase; we mighthastento make out
a figure(or to writeit in) in the volume capable of philosophy;we
mightset ourselvesto deal witha specificquestion: is theremetaphor
in the textof philosophy?in what form?to what extent?is it necessary
or incidental?and so on. Our confidenceis quicklylost: metaphor
seemsto bringintoplay the use of philosophicallanguagein itsentirety,
nothingless than the use of what is called ordinarylanguage in phi-
losophicaldiscourse,thatis to say,of ordinarylanguageas philosophical
language.
In short,a book is called for-on philosophy,on philosophicalusage,
or good philosophicalusage. The interestlies in what thisundertaking
promises,ratherthan in what it yields,and we shall thereforecontent
ourselveswith a chapter. Moreover,to "usage" we may append the
subtitle"wear and tear," and it is withthisthatwe shall concernour-
selves. And firstof all we shall directinterestupon a certainwear and
tear of metaphoricalforcein philosophicalintercourse.It will become
clear that this wear is not a supervenientfactormodifyinga kind of
trope-energy which would otherwiseremain intact; on the contrary,
it constitutesthe veryhistoryand structureof philosophicalmetaphor.
But how can we make it discernible,except by metaphor? This is

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY 7

where the notionof wear and tear comes in. We can have no access
to the wear and tearof a linguisticphenomenonwithoutgivingit some
kind of figurativerepresentation.What could be the wear and tear
properlyso-calledof a word,a statement,a meaning,a text?
We shall be bold and look to Anatole France: in The Garden of
Epicurus we shall unearthan example (but no more than an example
in which a common type may be discerned) of this metaphorof the
wear and tear of metaphor-of deteriorationin this figure. Let it be
noted that in the "obverse" of the presentchapter,Anatole France's
metaphor-the philosophicalwear and tear of this figure-happens
also to describethe activeerosionof the obverseof a coin.
Almost at the end of The Garden of Epicurus,' there is a short
dialogue between Aristosand Polyphiloson "the language of meta-
physics."The interlocutors are concernedpreciselywith that sensible
figure which is and
sheltered, worn out to the pointof seemingto pass
unnoticed,in every metaphysicalconcept. Abstract notions always
conceal a sensible figure. It seems that the historyof metaphysical
language is commingledwiththe erasingof what is effective in it, and
the wearingout of its effigy.We may detectherethe double bearingof
the French word usure (though Anatole France does not actuallyuse
this word), of which we may offerthe followingaccounts, although
theyremaininseparable: first,obviously,the word means that "wear"
of which we have been speaking-erasure by rubbing,or exhaustion,
or crumbling;but secondly,it has also the sense of "usury"-the addi-
tional productof a certaincapital, the processof exchangewhich,far
from losing the stake, would make that original wealth bear fruit,
would increase the returnfromit in the formof income, of higher
interest,of a kind of linguisticsurplusvalue.
POLYPHILOS: It was just a reverie. I was thinkinghow the Meta-
physicians,whentheymake a languageforthemselves, are like [and here
we have an image,a comparison,a figureto signify the figurative]knife-
grinders,who insteadof knivesand scissors,shouldput medalsand coins
to the grindstoneto effacethe exergue,the value and the head. When
theyhave workedaway tillnothingis visiblein theircrown-pieces, neither
King Edward,theEmperorWilliam,nor the Republic,theysay: "These
pieces have nothingeither English,German or French about them;
we have freedthemfromall limitsof timeand space; theyare not worth
fiveshillingsany more; theyare of an inestimablevalue, and theirex-

I Anatole France, The Garden of Epicurus, tr..A. Allinson,The Worksof Anatole

France, ed. F. Chapman and J. L. May (London and New York, 90o8), III,
205ff. The same work includes a sort of meditation on the figuresof the alphabet,
the original formsof certain of its letters ("How I discoursed one night with an
apparition on the firstoriginsof the alphabet").

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8 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

changevalue is extendedindefinitely."They are rightin speakingthus.

By thisneedyknife-grinder's
activitywordsare changedfroma physicalto
a metaphoricalacceptation. It is obviousthat theylose in the process;
whattheygain byit is not so immediatelyapparent.
It is not our task here to capitalize on this reverie,but to discern
throughits implicitlogic a drawingof the outlinesof our problem,of
the theoreticaland historicalconditionsunder which it emerges. At
least,we discerntwo limits: first,Polyphilos,it seems,wantsto preserve
the capital intact,or rather,to preservethe naturalwealth which pre-
cedes the accumulationof capital, the original virtueof the sensible
image which is defloweredand spoilt by the historyof the concept.
In this way he presupposes-and it is a classical motif,a common-
place of the eighteenthcentury-thatat itsoriginslanguage could have
been purely sensory,and that the etymonof a primitivemeaning,
thoughhidden,can alwaysbe determined.Secondly,thisetymologism
interpretsdegradationas the passage fromthe physicalto the meta-
physical. Thus Polyphilosis making use of a distinctionwhich is
entirelyphilosophical,and which itselfhas its historyand its meta-
phorical history,in orderto pass judgmenton what, as he alleges,the
philosopherunknowingly does withmetaphor.
This is confirmedby what follows: what is now in question is
preciselythe possibilityof restoringor reconstituting, beneath the
metaphorwhichat once concealsand is concealed,what was "originally
represented"on the coin that is worn and effaced,polished by the
circulationof the philosophicalconcept. "Ef-face-ment" shouldalways
be spoken of as the effacementof an originalfigure,were it not that
such effacement itselfeffacesitself.
All thesewords,whetherdefacedby usage, or polishedsmooth,or even
coined expresslyin view of constructing some intellectualconcept,yet
allow us to framesome idea to ourselvesof what theyoriginallyrepre-
sented. So chemistshave reagentswherebytheycan make the effaced
writingof a papyrusor a parchmentvisibleagain. It is by thesemeans
palimpsestsare deciphered.
If an analogous processwere applied to the writingsof the meta-
physicians,if the primitiveand concretemeaningthatlurksinvisibleyet
present under the abstractand new interpretation
werebroughtto light,
we shouldcome upon someverycuriousand perhapsinstructive ideas.
The primitivemeaning, the original figure,always sensible and
material ("The vocabulary of mankind was framed from sensuous
images,and thissensuousnessis to be found . . . even in the technical
termsconcoctedby metaphysicians. . . fatal materialisminherentin
thevocubulary"),is not exactlya metaphor. It is a kindof transparent

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY 9

figure,equivalentto a propermeaning. It becomesmetaphorwhen put

in circulationin philosophicaldiscourse. At that point,the firstmean-
ing and the firstdisplacementare simultaneously forgotten.The meta-
phor is no longer noticed, and it is taken forthe propermeaning.This
is a two-foldeffacement.On this view, philosophywould be a self-
eliminatingprocessof generatingmetaphor. It would be of the nature
of philosophythat philosophicalculturebe a rude obliteration.
This is a rule of economy: to reduce the work of abrasion, meta-
physicianswould by preferencechoose the mostworn of words: "they
go out of theirway to choose forpolishingsuch words as come to them
a bit obliteratedalready. In this way, they save themselvesa good
halfof the labor. Sometimestheyare luckierstill,and put theirhands
on words which, by long and universal use, have lost from time
immemorialall trace whateverof an effigy."Conversely,we are un-
wittingmetaphysicians in proportionto thewear and tear of our words.
Withoutmaking a themeor a problemof it, Polyphiloscannot avoid
proceedingto the logical conclusion-the case of absolute wear. But
what is this?And does not the metaphysiciansystematically prefersuch
loss-which is to say such unlimitedsurplus value-in choosing,for
example, concepts which are negative in form,ab-solute, in-finite,
in-tangible,not-being?"In threepages of Hegel, taken at random,in
his Phenomenology[a book verylittlereferredto, it seems,in French
universities in I900], out of six and twentywords,the subjectsof im-
portantsentences,I found nineteennegative terms as against seven
affirmatives. . ... These abs and ins and nons are more effectivethan
any grindstonein planing down. At a strokethey make the most
rugged words smooth and characterless.Sometimes,it is true, they
merelytwistthem round for you and turn them upside down." This
is whimsical: but we may detectbeyond it an outstandingquestion:
what is therelationbetweentheself-eliminating generationof metaphor
and conceptsof negativeform? Such conceptscancel definiteness and
determinacy, and it is their function to break the link with the sense
of a particularbeing,that is, withthe totalityof what is. In thisway,
theirobviousmetaphoricalqualityis put in abeyance. (We shall define
thisproblemof negativitymore clearlybelow by drawingattentionto
the alliance betweenthe Hegelian "sublation"-the Aufhebung,itself
too a unityof gain and loss, and the philosophicalconcept of meta-
phor.)
Such is the generalpractice,so far as I have observed,of the meta-
physicians-morecorrectly, the Metataphysicians;for it is anotherre-
markablefact to add to the restthat yourscienceitselfhas a negative
name,one takenfromthe orderin whichthe treatisesof Aristotlewere

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10 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

arranged,and thatstrictly speaking,you give yourselves the title: Those

who come afterthe Physicians.I understandof coursethat you regard
these,thephysicalbooks,as piled atop of each other,so thatto comeafter
is reallyto takeplace above. All thesame,you admitthismuch,thatyou
are outsideof naturalphenomena.

Althoughmetaphysicalmetaphorhas turnedeverymeaningupside
down, althoughit has also effacedpiles of physicaltreatises,one ought
alwaysto be able to reconstitute
the originalinscriptionand restorethe
palimpsest. Polyphilosindulges in this game. From a work which
"reviewsall systemsone by one fromthe old Eleatics down to the latest
Eclectics,and ... endsup withM. Lachelier,"he abstractsan extremely
abstract and speculative sentence: "The spirit possesses God in pro-
portion as it participates in the absolute." Then he undertakes an
etymologicalor philologicalinvestigationaimed at bringingto life all
the sleeping figures.To do this,he concernshimselfnot with "how
much truththesentencecontained,"but solelywith"the verbalform."
He firstmakes it clear that the words "God," "soul," "absolute," and
so forthare symbolsand not signs. The forceof thisdistinctionis that
what is symbolizedretainsa bond of natural affinity with the symbol,
and thus warrantsetymologicalreconstitution (in this way, arbitrari-
ness,as Nietzschealso suggests,would onlybe a degreeofwear and tear
of the symbolic). Polyphilosthen gives us the resultsof his chemical
operation:
WhereforeI was on the rightroad when I investigatedthe meanings
inherentin the wordsspirit,God, absolute,which are symbolsand not
signs.
"The spiritpossessesGod in proportionas it participatesin the abso-
lute."
Whatis thisifnota collectionof littlesymbols,muchwornand defaced,
I admit,symbolswhichhave lost theiroriginalbrilliance,and picture-
squeness,but whichstill,by the natureof things,remainsymbols?The
imageis reducedto theschema,but theschemais stilltheimage. And I
have been able,withoutsacrificing to substitute
fidelity, one fortheother.
In thisway I have arrivedat thefollowing:
"The breath is seated on the shining one in the bushel of the part it
takes in what is altogetherloosed (or subtle)," whence we easily get as a
next step: "'He whose breath is a sign of life,man, that is, will finda place
(no doubtafterthebreathhas beenexhaled) in thedivinefire,sourceand
home of life, and this place will be meted out to him according to the
virtue that has been given him (by the demons, I imagine) of sending
abroad this warm breath, this little invisiblesoul, across the free expanse
(the blue of the sky,mostlikely)."
And now observe,thephrasehas acquiredquite the ringof somefrag-

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY II

mentof a Vedic hymn,and smacksof ancientOrientalmythology. I can-

notanswerforhavingrestoredthisprimitive mythin fullaccordancewith
thestrictlaws governing language. But no matterforthat. Enoughif we
are seen to have found symbolsand a mythin a sentencethat was
essentially
symbolicand mythical,inasmuchas it was metaphysical.
I thinkI have at last made you realize one thing,Aristos,that any
expressionof an abstractidea can onlybe an analogy. By an odd fate,
the verymetaphysicians who thinkto escape the world of appearances
are constrainedto live perpetuallyin allegory.A sorrylot of poets,they
dim the colorsof the ancientfables,and are themselves but gatherersof
fables. The producewhitemythology.

A catchphrase-brief, condensed, economical, almost dumb--is

deployedin a speech consistingof interminableexplanations. It stands
out like a schoolmaster.It producesthe laughable effectalways given
by thewordyand arm-wavingtranslationof an orientalideogram.Here
is a parody of the translator,a metaphysicalnaivetyof the wretched
peripateticwho does not recognizehis own figure,and does not know
whereit has led him.
What is metaphysics?A white mythologywhich assemblesand re-
flectsWesternculture: the whiteman takes his own mythology(that
is, Indo-European mythology),his logos-that is, the mythosof his
idiom, for the universalformof that which it is still his inescapable
desireto call Reason. It's not so easy to get away with this. Aristos,
the defenderof metaphysics(a misprintwoud have given us Artistein
place of Aristein the title), finishesby leaving,determinednot to carry
on the dialogue with one who will not play the game: "I leave un-
convinced. If onlyyou had reasonedby the rules,I could have rebutted
yourargumentsquite easily."
What is white mythology?It is metaphysicswhich has effacedin
itselfthat fabulousscene which broughtit into being, and which yet
remains,active and stirring, inscribedin white ink, an invisibledraw-
ing covered over in the palimpsest.
It is not onlybecause it is striking-because,by strikingthe intellect
as much as the imagination,it creates a theatricaldelineationof our
problem-that thisdissymetric dialogue-this false dialogue-deserves
a place like the head on the obverseof a coin: thereare otherreasons.
To give themschematically:
I. It seems that the view of Polyphilosis not isolated. It remains
to interpretthe configurations to which it belongs in their historical
and theoreticaldistribution, theirboundaries,theirinternaldivisions,
and theirshiftsof phase. This is a taskin which we should be guided
by askingabout the natureof rhetoric,and in whichwe should have to

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12 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

give as much attentionto the textsof Renan2 and Nietzsche3 (both

of whom have recalled,as philologists, what theyconsideredto be the
of
metaphoricalorigin concepts, and notablyof that concept which
seems to be the supportof propermeanings,of the propertyof being
proper,namely,being), as to those of Freud,4Bergson,5and Lenin,6
who were conscious of metaphoricalactivityin theoreticalor philo-
sophical discourse,and proposedor carriedout a multiplication of con-
flictingmetaphors in order to neutralizeor controltheireffect. The
rise of historicallinguisticsin the nineteenthcenturyis by itselfquite
inadequate to explainthisinterestin the metaphoricalsedimentation of
concepts. And it goes without sayingthat thisconfigurationof themes
does not have a linear boundary,chronologically or historically.That
is shown by the names we have just linkedtogether,and moreoverthe
cleavages to be definedor maintainedare accentuatedwithinsegments
of discourse carryinga single signature. The elaboration of these
points should follow or go hand in hand with an attemptfor each
writerto ascertainanew the unityof his corpus.
2. If we read in a conceptthe hiddenhistoryof a metaphor,we are
givinga privilegedpositionto diachronyat the expenseof system,and

2 Ernest Renan, "De l'origine du langage" (1848), Ch. v, Oeuvres compldtes,

VIII.
3 See, for example, Philosophy During the Tragic Age of the Greeks, ? ii
(Complete Works of Nietzsche, ed. D. Levy, tr. M. A. Miigge [London and Edin-
burgh,1911], II, 128-29).
4 See, for example, the texts of Breuer and Freud in Studies on Hysteria, The
Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. J. Strachey (New York,
1949), II, 227-28, 288-90; or again Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious,
ibid., VIII, 210-I1; "The Question of Lay Analysis," ibid., XX, 187-88. From
another point of view, it is natural to referfor the role of rhetorical schemes in
psychoanalyticdiscourse to Jacques Lacan [Paris: Seuil, 1966]; see the
"Indexe raisonn6 des concepts majeurs" by(lcrits
J. A. Miller), to Emile Benveniste,
Remarques sur la fonctiondu langage dans la decouvertefreudienne (Paris: Galli-
mard, 1966), and to Roman Jakobson,"Two Aspects of Language and Two Types
of Aphasic Disturbance," Part II of R. O. Jakobsonand M. Halle, Fundamentals
of Language (The Hague: Mouton, 1956).
5 See, for example, the "Introduction a la m6taphysique," La Pensee et le
Mouvant, VI.
6 In the Notebooks on Hegel's dialectic, Lenin generally defined the relation
between Marx and Hegel as one of "overturning" (turning upside down), but
equally as one of "decapitation" (the Hegelian system less everythingwhich
governs it: the absolute, the Idea, God, etc.), or again of the development of a
"seed," and even of the "peeling away" of the husk to arrive at the kernel, etc.
For the question of metaphor in the reading of Marx, and in general in a
Marxist problematic, see especially Louis Althusser (For Marx, tr. B. Brewster,
[Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969], Part III, "Contradiction and Overdetermina-
tion," pp. 89-90, 114-15, 120o-2; and L. Althusserand Etienne Balibar, Reading
Capital, tr. B. Brewster [London, I970], pp. 24, i2In., 187ff.) and Jean-Joseph
Goux, "Numismatiques" I, II, Tel Quel, 35-36 (1968-69).

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY 13

we are puttingour money on that symbolistconceptionof language

which we have touched on: the link between signifierand signified
had to be and to remain,thoughburied, one of natural necessity,of
analogical participation,and of resemblance. Metaphor has always
been definedas the tropeof resemblance;not simplybetweensignifier
and signified,but betweenwhat are already two signs,the one desig-
natingthe other. This is its most general feature,and the one which
justifiedus in includingunderthisname all the figurescalled symbolical
or analogical which are evoked by Polyphilos (figure,myth,fable,
allegory). In this critiqueof philosophicallanguage, to concern one-
self with metaphor-a particularfigure-is thereforeto presupposea
symbolistposition. It is above all to concern oneselfwith the non-
syntactic,nonsystematic pole, with semantic "depth," with the mag-
netizing effect of similarityratherthan with positionalcombination,
call it "metonymous,"in the sense definedby Jakobson,who rightly
underlines7the affinity between symbolism(not only as a linguistic
notion, but also, we should claim, as a literaryschool), Romanticism
(with a more historical-that is, historicist-orientation,and more
directedtowardsinterpretation),and the prevalenceof metaphor. It
goes withoutsayingthatthe questionof metaphor,in the formin which
we are once moreposingit here,farfrombelongingto thisproblematic,
and sharingits assumptions,should on the contrarymark theirlimits.
Nevertheless,the task is, not to consolidatethe positionwhich Poly-
philos is aiming at by settingup a symmetricalpositionat the other,
systematic pole, but ratherto dismantlethe metaphysicaland rhetorical
structureswhich are at work in his position,not in order to reject or
discard them,but to reconstitute them in anotherway, and above all
in orderto begin to identifythe historicalterrain-the problematic-
in whichit has been possibleto inquiresystematically of philosophythe
metaphorical credentials of itsconcepts.
3. It was also to
necessary subject this notion of wear and tear to
scrutiny, for it seems to be systematically connectedwith the meta-
phoricalperspective. It is to be found wherever the themeof metaphor
has a special place. It is, moreover,a metaphorwhich carriesa pre-
suppositionof continuity: accordingto it, the historyof a metaphor
would not proceed like a journey,with breaks, reinstatements in a
heterogeneoussystem, mutation, unmotivated detours,but like a pro-
gressiveerosion,a regularsemanticloss, an uninterrupted drainingof
the primitivemeaning. It would be a case of empiricalabstractionnot
steppingoutsideits nativesoil. Not that the authorswe have referred

7 "Two Aspects," pp. 77-78.

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14 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

to have attendedexclusivelyto thisidea, but theyhave come back to

it everytimetheyhave let themetaphoricalpointof view predominate.
This feature,the notionof wear and tear,belongswithoutdoubt not to
a narrow historicaland theoreticalconfiguration, but more certainly
to the notionof metaphoritself,and to the long metaphysicalsequence
which it determines,or which is determinedby it. It is with that
sequence that we shall concernourselveshere initially.
4. It is remarkablehow insistently the metaphoricalprocessis desig-
nated by the paradigm of coinage, of metal-gold and silver. Now
beforemetaphor-a phenomenonof language--could be metaphori-
cally designatedby an economic phenomenon,it was necessarythat
interchangebetweenthesetwo "regions"should be orchestratedby a
more general analogy. Analogywithinlanguage is representedby an
analogybetweenlanguage and somethingotherthanit. But thatwhich
seemshere to "represent,"a figure,is also thatwhich opens the larger
vista of discourseon figure,and is no longerable to be restricted to a
regional or determinate or
science, linguistics, philology.
The inscriptionon a coin is most oftenthe point of crossover,the
scene of interchangebetweenlinguisticsand economics. The two kinds
ofsignifier serveforeach otherin theproblematicof fetishism, as much
in Nietzsche as in Marx.8 And the Contributionto the Critique of
Political Economyorganizessystematically the motifsclusteredaround
the French word usure (see above)-of "coinage speaking different
languages," of the relationbetween "differences in name" and "dif-
ferencesin shape," of theconversionof coinage into"gold sans phrase,"
and reciprocallyof the idealizationof gold which "becomes a symbol
of itselfand . . . cannot serveas a symbolof itself"("nothing can be
its own symbol," etc.9). The referencehere seems to be economic

8 See, for example, Capital, Part I, Ch. i, ?4: "[The] Fetish character [of com-
modity production] is comparativelyeasy to be seen through.. . . Whence arose
the illusionsof the monetarysystem? To it gold and silver,when servingas money,
did not representa social relation between producers, but were natural objects
with strange properties. ... Could commodities themselves speak, they would
say: . . . Now listen how these commodities speak through the mouth of the
economist. ..."
9 A Contributionto the Critique of Political Economy, tr. N. F. Stone (Chicago,
1904), Book I, Ch. ii, ?2c, pp. 139, 145. Here we simply recall these texts.
To analyze them from the point of view which concerns us here (the critique
of etymologism,questions on the historyand import of the notion of what is
"proper"--idion, proprium, eigen), it would be necessary to keep firmlyin
mind this fact in particular, that Marx's critique of etymologismwas not, like
that of others (Plato, Leibniz, Rousseau, etc.), simply that it was an unscientific
deviation or abuse, an exercise in bad etymology. His critique took what is
proper as an example. We cannot quote here the whole critique of Destutt de
Tracy who plays on the words property and proper, as did "Stirner" with

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY 15

and the metaphorlinguistic.No doubt it is not withoutsignificance

that Nietzsche,at least in appearance (in his case too), reversesthe
currentof the analogy; but this should not lead us to overlookthe
common possibilityof exchange and of terms: "What then is truth?
A mobile army of metaphors,metonymics,anthropomorphisms:in
short,a sum of human relationswhich became poeticallyand rhetori-
metamorphosed,adorned, and afterlong usage, seem
cally intensified,
to a nation fixed,canonic and binding; truthsare illusionsof which
one has forgottenthat they are illusions; worn-outmetaphorswhich
have become powerlessto affectthe senses [die abgenutztund sinnlich
kraftlosgewordensind], coins which have theirobverse [Bildl effaced
and now are no longerof account as coins but merelyas metal."10

Mein and Meinung (mine, my opinion; Hegel did this too), Eigentum and
Eigenheit (property and individuality). We shall simply quote a passage con-
cerned with the reduction of the science of economics to the play of language,
and of the stratifiedspecificityof concepts to the imaginary unity of an etymon:
"Above 'Stirner' refuted the communist abolition of private property by first
transferringprivate propertyinto 'having' and then declaring the verb 'to have'
an indispensable word, an eternal truth, because even in communist society it
could happen that Stirner will 'have' a stomach-ache. In exactly the same way
he here bases the impossibilityof abolishing private property by transferringit
into the concept of property ownership, by exploiting the etymological connec-
tion between the words Eigentum ["property"] and eigen ["proper," "own"], and
declaring the word eigen an eternal truth because a stomach-ache will be eigen
to him. All this theoretical nonsense, which seeks refuge in bad etymology,
would be impossible if the actual private property which the communists want
to abolish had not been transformedinto the abstract notion of 'property.' This
transformation,on the one hand, saves one the trouble of having to say any-
thing,or even merelyto know anythingabout actual private propertyand, on the
other hand, makes it easy to discover a contradiction in communism,since after
the abolition of (actual) propertyit is, of course, easy to discover still all sorts
of thingswhich can be included in the term 'property.'" (Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels, The German Ideology, ed. C. J. Arthur, [Moscow: Progressive Publi-
cations, I964/London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1965], Part II, "The Language
of Property," p. 247.) This critique, which opens or leaves open the questions
of the "reality" of being proper and of the "abstraction" or concept (not the
general reality) of being proper, is continued furtheron with some remarkable
examples: "For example, propriete-property [Eigentum]and feature[Eigenschaft];
property-possession [Eigentum] and peculiarity [Eigentiimlichkeit];'eigen' [one's
own]-in the commercial and in the individual sense; valeur, value, Wert
["Worth," "Value"]; commerce, Verkehr ["intercourse," "traffic," "commerce,"
"communication"]; dchange, exchange, Austausch ["exchange"], etc., all of which
are used both for commercial relations and for features and mutual relations of
individuals as such. In the other modern languages this is equally the case.
If Saint Max seriously applies himself to exploit this ambiguity, he may easily
succeed in making a brilliant series of new economic discoveries,without knowing
anythingabout political economy; for, indeed, his new economic facts, which we
shall take note of later, lie wholly within this sphere of synonymy"(ibid., p. 249).
Io Nietzsche, Works, "On Truth and Falsity in their Ultramoral Sense" (1873),
II, I8o. This motif of the effacement,of the fading of the image, can also be
found in The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, Complete Psychological Works,

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16 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

If we accept thisSaussurean distinction,

we shall thereforesay that
the question of metaphorbelongs here to a theoryof value, and not
merelyto a theoryof meaning. It is just when he justifiesthisdistinc-
tion that Saussure lays down the necessitythat the synchronicand
diachronicaxes should intersectin all the sciencesof vaue, but only
there.He thendevelopstheanalogybetweeneconomicsand linguistics:

. that duality[betweensynchronyand diachrony]is alreadyforcing

itselfupon theeconomicsciences.Here, in contrastto the othersciences,
politicaleconomyand economichistoryconstitutetwo clearlyseparated
disciplineswithina single science .... Proceeding as theyhave, economists
are-without being aware of it-obeying an inner necessity.A similar
obligesus to dividelinguistics
necessity into twoparts,each withits own
principle.Here as in politicaleconomywe are confronted
withthenotion
of value; both sciences are concerned with a systemfor equating things
of differentorders-labourand wages in one, and a signified
and a sig-
nifierin theother.11

To definethe notion of value, even beforeit is made specificas

economic or linguisticvalue, Saussure describesthe general features
which will guaranteea metaphoricalor analogical transition,by simi-
larityor proportionality,
fromone orderto the other. Now once again,
analogy producingmetaphoris constitutive of each of theseordersas
much as of theirrelation.
Once more,the demonstrationof thispoint is paid forin coin:
we mustclear up the issue [of the relationbetweenvalue and sig-
...
nification]or riskreducinglanguage to a simple namingprocess .
To resolvethis issue, let us observefromthe outsetthat even outside
language all values are apparentlygovernedby the same paradoxical
principle.They are alwayscomposed:
(i) of a dissimilarthing that can be exchanged for the thing of which
thevalue is to be determined;
and
(2) of similar thingsthat can be compared with the thing of which the
value is to be determined.
Both factorsare necessaryforthe existenceof a value. To determine
what a five-franc piece is worthone mustthereforeknow: (I) thatit
can be exchangedfora fixedquantityof a different thing,e.g., bread;
and (2) thatit can be comparedwitha similarvalue of thesame system,
e.g., a one-francpiece, or withcoins of anothersystem(a dollar,etc.).

IV, 43), but no more in Freud than in Nietzsche does it provide a univocal or
unilateral determination of the theory of metaphor. For this we need to put
ourselves in a more general frameworkof debate.
I Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, ed. C. Bally and
A. Sechehaye, tr. W. Baskin [I959], Part I, Ch. iii,
? i, p. 79.

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WHITE MYTHOLOGY 17

In thesame way [ouritalics]a wordcan be exchangedforsomething dis-

similar,an idea; besides,it can be comparedwithsomething of the same
nature,anotherword. Its value is therefore notfixedso longas one simply
statesthatit can be "exchanged"fora givenconcept,i.e., thatit has this
or thatsignification:one mustalso compareit withsimilarvalues,with
otherwordsthatstandin oppositionto it. Its contentis reallyfixedonly
by the concurrenceof everything that existsoutsideit. Being part of a
system,it is endowed not only with but also and especially
a signification
witha value, and thisis somethingquite different.12

We have long known that value, gold, the eye, the sun and so on,
belong to the developmentof the same trope. Their interchangeis
dominantin the fieldof rhetoricand of philosophy.Saussure'sremark
to this effectin the same passage can thereforebe consideredin the
lightof Polyphilos'renderingsquoted above (the "seated breath,"the
"divine fire,source and home of life," etc.). It remindsus that an
object which is the most natural, the most universal,the most real,
the most clear, a referentwhich is apparentlythe most external,the
sun-that this object, as soon as it plays a role in the process of
axiologicaland semanticexchange (and it alwaysdoes), does not com-
pletelyescape the general law of metaphoricalvalue: "The value of
just any termis accordinglydeterminedby its environment;it is im-
possibleto fixeven the value of the signifier'sun' withoutconsidering
its surroundings:in some languages it is not possibleto say 'sit in the
sun. " 13
In this same constellation,but in its inalienable place, we should
rereadonce more14 thewhole textof Mallarme on linguistics, aesthetics,
and politicaleconomy,his whole deploymentof the sign or ["gold"],
which has the calculated textual effectof thwartingall the contrasts
between proper and figurativemeaning, metaphor and metonymy,
formand content,syntaxand semantics,classical speech and classical
writing,the more and the less. Especiallywe should look to that page
which disseminatesits titleOR in the course of "phantasmagoricsun-
sets."

II. More and No More Metaphor

The obverseof the coin is effaced. How are we to deciphera figure,
and metaphorin particular,in the text of philosophy?This question

12 Ibid., Part II, Ch. iv, ?2, pp. 114-15.

i3 Ibid., p. iI 6.
I4 I have given an outline of this reading in "La Double Seance" II, Tel
Quel, 42. [See Stephane Mallarmi, Variations sur un sujet, "Grands faits divers:
Or"-Tr.]

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