TY  - CHAP
A1  - Achtenberg, Deborah
T1  - But you don't get used to anything : Derrida on the preciousness of the singular
T2  - Untying the mother tongue / ed. by Antonio Castore and Federico Dal Bo ; Cultural Inquiry ; 26
N2  - This chapter argues against the view that Derrida's emphasis on change makes him complicit in the neoliberal requirement of flexibility that results both in precarity and in the dominance of English. To the contrary, the essay argues that Derrida's idea of 'différance' includes the view that openness both involves loss and is always partial (since incision involves excision), that the singular is precious, and that deconstruction is justice since it is alert to what is excluded even by efforts at inclusiveness. Examples of the preciousness and loss of the singular are circumcision (where incision is excision), hospitality (in which unconditional hospitality has material limitations and conditions), subjectivity (which is never based on full presence), language (which both is my own and comes from an other), and neighbourhoods (since they continue only by incorporating new people). Deconstruction, the essay concludes, need not be complicit in neoliberal dominance but, properly understood, makes us aware of the power dynamics by which the openness of plurilingualism can lead to the dominance of English.
KW  - Derrida, Jacques
KW  - Dekonstruktion
KW  - Wandel
KW  - Verlust
KW  - Muttersprache
KW  - Sprache
KW  - Deconstruction
KW  - Mother tongue
KW  - Loss
KW  - Singularity
Y1  - 2023
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75508
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-755086
UR  - https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-26/achtenberg_derrida-on-the-singular.pdf
SN  - 978-3-96558-050-3
SN  - 978-3-96558-051-0
SN  - 978-3-96558-049-7
SN  - 2627-731X
SP  - 11
EP  - 24
PB  - ICI Press
CY  - Berlin
ER  -