Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Textual Notes
- Introduction
- 1 Classical Semiology
- 2 The Originality of Saussure
- 3 The Concept of the Sign
- 4 Writing, Speech, and the Voice
- 5 The Sign as Representation
- 6 Linguistic Identity
- 7 The Sign and Time
- 8 The Horizon of Language
- Conclusion
- List of Works by Derrida and Saussure
- References
- Index
4 - Writing, Speech, and the Voice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Textual Notes
- Introduction
- 1 Classical Semiology
- 2 The Originality of Saussure
- 3 The Concept of the Sign
- 4 Writing, Speech, and the Voice
- 5 The Sign as Representation
- 6 Linguistic Identity
- 7 The Sign and Time
- 8 The Horizon of Language
- Conclusion
- List of Works by Derrida and Saussure
- References
- Index
Summary
In many of his early works, particularly Of Grammatology, ‘Structure, Sign, and Play’ and ‘Semiology and Grammatology’, Derrida presents the concept of the sign as essentially produced by, and limited by, a certain metaphysical tradition. That claim produces, for us, three interwoven themes of inquiry. The first assessed the originality that Derrida would grant to Saussure within the tradition of the sign; the second explored the identity and history of what Derrida calls the concept of the sign. The third, and probably best-known theme of inquiry in Derrida's engagement with Saussure, concerns the relationship between writing, speech, and the voice.
For Derrida, it is the exclusion of writing which enables classical metaphysics to mark the division between the exterior and interior of meaning. Outside of meaning is writing, empty marks which facilitate the transport of meaning from person to person; inside of meaning is the mental voice, and the guarantee of the possibility of an immediate relationship with referents and hence with truth. To take one example, the ‘Exergue’ from Of Grammatology announces the field of its inquiry as follows:
The idea of science and the idea of writing – therefore also of the science of writing – is meaningful for us only in terms of an origin and within a world to which a certain concept of the sign (later I shall call it the concept of sign) and a certain concept of the relationships between speech and writing, have already been assigned. (4)
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- Information
- What if Derrida was wrong about Saussure? , pp. 63 - 85Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2011