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Question: Question for the brainy's: Derrida's notion of differance!?
THis is really for brainiacs!. I'm trying make sure I understand what Derrida means by differance!. I know that he agrees with Saussure that language is a system of differences, but then he starts going on about how there are two processes: difference and delay ie!. that the meaning of a word is never fixed but always open (delayed) as new meanings are/will be affixed in the future!. Is this what he means by the "trace", ie!. that language carries with it "traces" of the past!. Any ideas!? Am I on the right track!? Derrida is SO freakin' complicated and he writes like he doesn't want ANYONE to understand him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
differAnce is term coined to combine two senses of the French verb différer (to differ, and to defer or postpone) in a noun which is spelt differently from différence but pronounced in the same way!. The point of this neologism is to indicate simultaneously two senses in which language denies us the full presence of any meaning: first, that no linguistic element (according to Saussure's theory of the sign) has a positive meaning, only an effect of meaning arising from its differences from other elements; second, that presence or fullness of meaning is always deferred from one sign to another in an endless sequence!. Thus if you look up a word in a dictionary, all it can give you is other words to explain it; so—in theory, at least—you will then have to look these up, and so on without end!. Différance, then, may be conceived as an underlying principle of non‐identity which makes signification possible only by ‘spacing out’ both signifiers and concepts so that meaning appears merely as a ‘trace’ of other terms within or across any given term!. It's an unstable term which helped him in his theory of deconstruction, as you know he's one of the theoreticians of PostmodernismWww@QuestionHome@Com