[lbo-talk] Heartfield on Derrida

magcomm magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Fri Apr 10 12:03:08 PDT 2009



> Deconstruction can sit happily alongside an ironic, self-knowing
imperialism, such as we see argued by the EU official Robert Cooper.

I do not think that Derrida's understanding of deconstruction could take that seat. His late work on ethics and hospitality shows how deconstruction and ethics are tightly aligned. I found his ADIEU TO EMMANUEL LEVINAS very helpful. Also, there are many points of connection between Derrida's thought and Buddhism. The rejection of master narratives has always seemed to me to be the rejection of an unambiguous, absolute closure point. The narrative is always reformulating itself and its conclusions. So deconstruction could not sit alongside (happily or otherwise) a self-knowing imperialism, since the act of self-knowing is an on-going process that never ends and is always subject to ethical scrutiny.

Brian



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