The End of Writing? Grammatology and Plasticity

Bibliographic Data

ID3970646
AuthorsCatherine Malabou (0000-0002-2971-4707, Université Paris Nanterre, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume12
Issue4
Pages431-441
Publication date2007-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe European Legacy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-8770 • E-ISSN: 1470-1316
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10848770701396254
OpenAlexW2079160960
LanguageEN
Citations received19

The word “grammatology” literally signifies the “science of writing.” One must acknowledge, however, that this science has never existed. Derrida's book Of Grammatology proposes to elaborate and to implement just such a project. Why has this grammatological project never been accomplished? For Derrida, “writing”1 1. Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, corrected ed. (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 4. Derrida recalls the definition of the word “grammatology” given in the Littré dictionary: “A treatise upon Letters, upon the alphabet, syllabation, reading, and writing” (323 n. 4); subsequent references are cited in the text. can no longer simply designate a technique for the notation of speech. A distinction should be made, then, between “narrow” and “enlarged” meanings of writing. Indeed, is the extension of the concept of writing the work of writing itself or must one suppose that the “modifiability” of the concept is not of the order of writing? This essay will propose that an original modifiability, not reducible to the single operation of writing, is initiated from the beginning as well. I call this modifiability “plasticity.” “Plasticity of writing” would then be the paradox inherent in the redefinition of writing itself that may explain the “failure” of any “grammatology.”

Art · Linguistics · Literature · Notation · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications

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