PHILOSOPHER JACQUES DERRIDA TO BE CELEBRATED IN NYC MEMORIAL NOVEMBER 19
French philosopher Jacques Derrida, a giant of 20th century thinking who challenged the idea that texts have unchanging, unified meanings through his influential theory of deconstruction, will be celebrated at a gathering of leading American and French scholars on Friday, November 19 at Barnard College in New York City.
In addition to scholars, this major memorial gathering will include collaborators, translators and interpreters of Derrida's ideas and books. Derrida, who died last month, had enormous influence in the United States and since the early 1970s, taught at American universities, including Johns Hopkins, the University of California at Irvine and Yale. His major idea - that a written text must be unraveled to reveal its hidden meaning - has been applied to architecture, law, linguistics, literature, and philosophy.
The memorial will take place from 2:30-5:00 P.M. in Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd floor, Barnard Hall (3009 Broadway at West 117th Street). It is open to the public at no charge. No R.S.V.P. is needed. For more information, please contact Professor Serge Gavronsky of the Barnard French Department at sgavonsky@barnard.edu
Organized by Gavronsky, the memorial will bring together scholars across several disciplines and interests - philosophy, literary theory, language and culture - to discuss Derrida's work and influence. Faculty of Barnard, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York and Princeton universities and the University of Pennsylvania will participate.
Among the speakers will be: Mary-Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, the prolific author of works of literary criticism and books about French poetry (she wrote the preface to The Secret Art of Antonin Artaud by Derrida and Paule Thévenin); Professor Eduardo L. Cadava of Princeton, who translated Derrida's Memoires for Paul de Man; and Professor Gavronsky, chair of the Barnard French Department and author of pioneering texts on contemporary French writing.
In addition, the group will be joined by Professor Avital Ronell of the Philosophy Department at New York University whose work has been influenced by a variety of philosophers including Derrida, whose works she has translated. Letters celebrating Derrida will be included from Philippe Beck and Michel Deguy, philosophers, poets and translators; poet and Derrida biographer Didier Cahen and literary critic Marjorie Perloff.
Author of fundamental works on Heidegger, Ponge, Marx and Artaud, Derrida was a pathbreaker whose theory of deconstruction at its heart is the idea that each word and text is imbued with layers of meaning accumulated through cultural and historical processes. Derrida put forth the theory that texts have significance beyond that obvious to the writer and reader which can only be "deconstructed" by experts. His strategy of analysis has been applied to literature, linguistics, philosophy, law and architecture. In 1967 Derrida published three books—Speech and Phenomena; Of Grammatology; and Writing and Difference, which introduced the deconstructive approach to reading texts
Derrida was born in Algeria and studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he later taught from 1965 to 1984. Earlier he taught at the Sorbonne.
Derrida believed that the traditional way of reading made false assumptions: that a reader believes that language is capable of expressing ideas without changing them; that in the hierarchy of language, writing is secondary to speech; and that the author of a text is the source of its meaning. He challenged the idea that a text has an unchanging, unified meaning. Drawing on psychoanalysis and linguistics, Derrida said the author's intentions in speaking cannot be unconditionally accepted. This multiplies the number of legitimate interpretations of a text.
Speakers:
Barnard College Professors Taylor Carman, Serge Gavronsky and Keith Moxey
City University of New York, Graduate Center Distinguished Professor Mary-Ann Caws
New York University Professors Michel Beaujour, Tom Bishop and Avital Ronell
Princeton University Professor Eduardo L. Cadava
University of Pennsylvania Professor Jean-Michel Rabaté
Letters from friends and colleagues:
Michel Deguy and Philippe Beck, philosophers, poets and translators
Didier Cahen, poet and biographer
Marjorie Perloff, literary critic
Contact: Suzanne Trimel
(212) 854-2037
strimel@barnard.edu |
