Quoted Confessions
Augustine's Confessiones and Derrida's “Circonfession”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8910596 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Johanna Schumm (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich, Germany, corresponding author) |
| Translators | Jan Schönherr |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 729-756 |
| Publication date | 2015-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Literature Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4132 • E-ISSN: 1528-4212 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/complitstudies.52.4.0729 |
| OpenAlex | W2293970213 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 8 |
In his autobiographical text “Circonfession,” written in 1990, Jacques Derrida makes various references to Augustine's Confessiones. This article reveals broad similarities between the works of the church father and the father of deconstruction in Derrida's reading of the former's text. Imitating Augustinian motifs and techniques of confession, Derrida builds a bridge to a premodern epistemic and esthetics of subjectivity. Through the literary techniques of addressing and citation, Augustine and Derrida each formulate a confessional subject that constitutes itself only in interrelation to an alterity. The similarities are based on related assumptions in both authors’ theories of language and interpretation. The Augustinian question “why we confess to the omniscient God” (“Cur confitemur Deo scienti”) and his answer “to do truth” (“veritatem facere”) lead Derrida to a notion of confession in line with Augustine's, and he then ostentatiously distinguishes that notion from Rousseau's. The difference lies in the intention of the two confessions: plea for forgiveness versus apology
Art · Confession (law · Confessional · Deconstruction (building · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Plea · Reading (process · Subject (documents · Subjectivity · Theology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy
The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida
Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin
Autobiographie et judéité chez Jacques Derrida
Augustine's Answer to Jacques Derrida in the De Doctrina Christiana
Milah
Psalmenzitate in Augustins Konfessionen
Sprachphilosophie in Antike und Mittelalter
La carte postale
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2021 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |