The blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye.
Jacques DerridaRead
In Algeria, I had begun to get into literature and philosophy. I dreamed of writing-and already models were instructing the dream, a certain language governed it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects Derrida's early aspirations in literature and philosophy, highlighting the influence of models and language on his dreams of writing.
In this quote, Jacques Derrida shares a personal insight into his formative experiences in Algeria where he was drawn to literature and philosophy. He emphasizes the motivational role that literary models and the structure of language played in shaping his desire to write, suggesting that his ambition was not only a personal aspiration but also a product of the cultural and intellectual environment surrounding him at the time.
Themes
LiteraturePhilosophyWritingDreamsLanguage
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a literature seminar to inspire students about the impact of language on their writing.
More from Jacques Derrida
All quotes βEverything is arranged so that it be this way, this is what is called culture.
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No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn't understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language.
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Psychoanalysis has taught that the dead β a dead parent, for example β can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.
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The trace I leave to me means at once my death, to come or already come, and the hope that it will survive me. It is not an ambition of immortality; it is fundamental. I leave here a bit of paper, I leave, I die; it is impossible to exit this structure; it is the unchanging form of my life. Every time I let something go, I live my death in writing.
Jacques DerridaRead
Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology.
Jacques DerridaRead
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