Reception

In the course of an intellectual career lasting some fifty years and displaying throughout a quite remarkable persistence and inventiveness, Derrida radically transformed the contemporary philosophical, theoretical, and literary landscape as few others were able. For essential reasons, however, that were part of the purpose and manner of his writing, Derrida founded no school of thought, authored no official body of doctrine, fathered no philosophical institution that bore his name.

True enough, Derrida's signature was nothing if not singular, but no less than in the case of Joyce it could not, in so far as it was a signature, become a source of dogmatic authority, and at no stage was it ever presented by Derrida as such. Whatever Derrida sought to expound in his own name was by that very gesture exposed to the scrutiny of others. In this sense, Derrida's signature had more the structure of a gift, offered to readers, present and future alike, over which Derrida himself neither claimed nor sought to exert control. Moreover, like any signature, it was never wholly self-identical, but subject to constant variation, alteration, and transformation. This explained, among others, Derrida's often voiced desire, which was also a promise he endeavoured repeatedly to fulfil, to exploit and explore, at different moments in his writing, the widest possible range of discursive strategies, genres, tones of voice, and rhetorical or other forms.