From: antonio callari (antonio.callari@FANDM.EDU)
Date: Wed Oct 13 2004 - 10:53:58 EDT
Dear OPE-Lers:
Here is a letter to the Times about Derrida (and views of him)
written by a number of scholars in response to the vapid obituary the
times published. About Derrida's use of abstract and difficult
language: I'm reminded of Marx's reaction to the his contemporaries'
taking to treating Hegel as a dead dog (he was also difficult and
philosophical): Marx actually structured Capital in a manner that
highlighted the critical powers of philosophical contradiction:
deconstruction is a version of that (in its own context, the context
of our times--whatever Eagleton might think).
antonio
To the Editor:
Jonathan Kandell’s obituary article on Jacques Derrida, published in
the NYT of October 10th, is as mean-spirited as it is uninformed. To
characterize Derrida, one of the most important philosophers of the
twentieth century, as an “Abstruse Theorist” who is “notoriously
difficult,” is to employ criteria, such as simplicity or transparency,
which would disqualify virtually all the significant thinkers of the
past century, including Einstein, Wittgenstein, and Heisenberg.
Worse, with scarcely concealed xenophobia, Derrida’s work, and
deconstruction generally, is described as yet another of those
“fashionable, slippery philosophies that … emerged from France after
World War II,” which “many Americans, in particular,” felt were
“undermining many of the traditional standards of classical
education”
as well as encouraging “divisive political causes.” In fact,
Derrida’s
writing has been focused on the major works of the Western Tradition,
from Plato, Aristotle, and the Bible to Shakespeare, Kant, and the
Declaration of Independence - none of which he ever suggested we
should discard as the products of “dead white men,” as Mr. Kandell
implies. As for political causes, Derrida was a tireless critic of
apartheid and racism in all its forms.
While he asserts without further evidence that “literary critics”
under the baneful influence of deconstruction allegedly “broke texts
into isolated passages and phrases to find hidden meanings,” Mr.
Kandell himself does precisely this when he quotes several isolated
statements without ever trying to indicate their possible context.
They then are designated as “typical of Mr. Derrida’s murky
explanations of his philosophy.” (One of the quotes he attributes to
Derrida, “O my friend, there is no friend,” is in fact from
Aristotle!).
In short, this text confirms one of the few sensible quotes it
contains: “Many otherwise unmalicious people have in fact been guilty
of wishing for deconstruction’s demise-if only to relieve themselves
of the burden of trying to understand it.” Whether Mr. Kandall’s
article is “unmalicious” we will leave to others to decide. There
can
be no question, however, that his article does everything it can to
“relieve” readers “of the burden of trying to understand”
Jacques
Derrida and deconstruction, by announcing the demise of both.
Although a newspaper article may not be the best place for sustained
discussion of difficult topics, The New York Times has done itself
and its readers a disservice in publishing such an unbalanced and
unqualified article as its official obituary. It can only be hoped
that in the future it will make its pages available to other, more
informed points of view.
Samuel Weber, Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities, Northwestern
University
Kenneth Reinhard, Associate Professor of English and Comparative
Literature, UCLA
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Avalon Foundation Professor in the
Humanities, Columbia University
Eric L. Santner, Philip and Ida Romberg Professor of Modern German
Studies, The University of Chicago.
J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Research Professor of English and
Comparative Literature, U. of Cal. at Irvine
Patricia Dailey, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative
Literature, Columbia University
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Professor of English and Comparative
Literature, UC Irvine
Thomas Keenan, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Bard
College
Mark Strand, Poet Laureate; Andrew Mc Leish Distinguished Service
Professor, University of Chicago
Carol Jacobs, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Yale
University
Emily Apter, Professor of French, NYU
Karen Lawerence, Dean of Humanities, UC Irvine
Amy Hollywood, Professor of Theology and the History of
Christianity, University of Chicago
Henry Sussman, Dept. of Germanic Languages & Literatures, Yale
University
Michael Hardt, Associate Professor of Literature, Duke University
Jonathan Arac, Harriman Professor of English and Comparative
Literature, Columbia University
Eleanor Kaufman, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, UCLA
Drew Daniel and Martin Schmitt, Matmos
Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Distinguished Professor of English, Brown
University; Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and
English, Duke University.
Marie-Rose Logan, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
Rainer Nagele, Professor of German, The Johns Hopkins University
Srinivas Aravamudan, Director, Franklin Humanities Institute
Associate Professor, Department of English, Duke University
Ranjana Khanna, Associate Professor of English, the Program in
Literature, and Women's Studies Duke University
Anthony Vidler, Dean and Professor, Irwin S. Chanin School of
Architecture Cooper Union, New York.
Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia University
Jody Greene, Associate Professor of Literature, University of
California, Santa Cruz
Dalia Judovitz, NEH Professor of French, Emory University
Peter Fenves, Professor of German, Northwestern University
Geoffrey Bennington, Asa G. Candler Professor of Modern French
Thought, Emory University
Elissa Marder, Associate Professor of French, Director,
Psychoanalytic Studies Program, Emory University
--
Antonio Callari
E-MAIL: A_CALLARI@ACAD.FANDM.EDU
POST MAIL: Department of Economics
Franklin and Marshall College
Lancaster PA 17604-3003
PHONE: 717/291-3947
FAX: 717/291-4369
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