Re: [microsound] [ot] Derrida

[philthom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>> >> I admit to not having followed Derrida for some years, but I had come
>> >> to the conclusion that deconstruction was just a fancy introverted
>> way
>> >> of saying anything goes and therefore required no further attention.
>>
>> >That's a poor & weak conclusion.
>>
>> >tV
>>
>>Because...?
>
> Deconstruction (or post-structuralism) was targeted at French
> "anti-humanist
> structuralism" (semiotic analysis).  See: Sassure's (-->Barthes,
> Levi-Strauss...) "langue" and "difference"; Derrida's (-->Lacan)
> "transcendental signified" and "differance"
> WWW.JARRODFOWLER.COM
> 02/04: JMF001, JMF002, JMF003, JMF004

Maybe I should have been more precise. I was trying to get Tobias to
elaborate on his terse rebuttal, but also inviting others to do so. I
understand the genealogy of deconstruction in the Derridean sense
(although I don't agree that deconstruction is synonymous with
post-structuralism), but your post doesn't quite answer the question of
why deconstruction is not just nihilism as the OP basically implies.

I still think Tobias can address this better than I can, but I will say
that it's worth making a distinction between the different strains of
deconstruction, like the American lit-crit strain of deconstruction (Paul
deMan et al.) as well as Derrida's own theoretical project, which
originates more in the tradition of philosophy than that of lit-crit.
People jumble a lot of things together under the banner of
"deconstruction" or worse, "postmodernism" and don't always understand the
subtle yet important distinctions to be made between them. There are lots
of things that can be done with deconstruction: Gayatri Spivak's and Homi
Bhabha's take postcolonial theory is one example. In my view, they come
somewhat closer to the spirit of Derrida's project than the US lit-crit
folks; Spivak, for example, points out that "the only things one
deconstructs are the things in which one is intimately mired; it speaks
you; you speak it". This, for me, highlights both the constitutive
ambivalence of the deconstructive philosophical position, but also its
link to the social in the context of postmodernity/postcoloniality... This
is certainly relevant to the practice of "post-digital" music in the
context of "globalization": it speaks us, we speak it...

But then, I must just be trying to impress my girlfriend (hi Valorie!)
Sorry for the theory wank. Tobias? Anything to add? Anyone? Bueller?
Bueller?...

~P~

~_~

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