Forms in the Abyss: A Philosophical Bridge Between Sartre and Derrida
by Steve Martinot
Temple University Press, 2007 Cloth: 978-1-59213-439-7 | Paper: 978-1-59213-440-3 Library of Congress Classification B2430.S34M366 2006 Dewey Decimal Classification 194
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The relationship between the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and the post-structuralist Jecques Derrida has never been fully examined until now. In Forms in the Abyss, Steve Martinot finds, between these two important philosophical thinkers of the twentieth century, "a common uncommonality" by which he sees them confront each other as "kindred souls" despite their vast differences.
Martinot argues that a bridge between these two thinkers can be constructed. He demonstrates that one can use the critical tools provided by Derrida, and the forms of discourse and reasoning developed by Sartre, to set the two in dialogue with each other. In the process, Martinot develops a theory of dialogue that incorporates both ethics and form and contributes a new way of thinking about critical and social theory. More importantly, he adds a new ethical and political imperative to postmodern thought that many dritics have often found missing in the works of thinkers like Derrida.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Steve Martinot is Instructor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at San Francisco State University. He is the author of The Rule of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance (Temple), editor of two previous books, and translator of Racism by Albert Memmi.
REVIEWS
"The project of transcoding Sartrean language into the Derridean coordinates, and vice-versa, is an unseasonable one whose reward lies in the defamiliarization of both. Martinot's minute, technical readings avoid all facile ideological generalizations and send us back to the original texts with new eyes."
—Fredric Jameson
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
History and Writing
The Metaphysics of a Common Language
The Narrative of Metaphysics
The Historical Dimension
A Common Uncommonality
Chapter 2: The Form of Uncommon Logic 37
Invention
Différance
Néantisation
On Heidegger
Chapter 3 - The Parameters of Homology 73
Extensions of the Double Non-negation
Sartre's Use of the Skew Relation as a Formalism
Derrida's Use of the Skew Relation in his Thematics
The Middle Voice
Always Already
Chapter 4: Form and Structure 103
On Form
On Structure
The Derridean Circle
Mediation
The Triadic Circle in its Historical Moment
Conclusion: The Structures of Ethnocentrism
Chapter 5: The Look and its Inner Narrativizations 150
The Look
The other-as-object
The Look
The Meta-narrativity of the Look
A Critique and Extension of the NMN-structure
The Form of Form
Chapter 6: The Sartre-Derrida Homology 180
The Inside of the Outside, the Supplement
A Note on "Infrastructure"
Separation in Immediacy, the Hymen
The Role of Narrative
The Social Text of the Glyph
Dissemination
Reading the Imagination as Reading
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Circularities and Foundations 238
Bringing the Incommensurable into Dialogue
The Reader
The Circle
Derrida's Deconstruction of the Subject
Sartre's Deconstruction of the Subject
Chapter 8: A Theory of Dialogue 270
An Elementary Particle of the Social
Being for Others as a Micro-socius
The Boundary between Subjectivities
The Ontological Structure of Dialogue
The Semiotic Structure of Dialogue
The Derridean Moment of the Social
Listening and (Re)Construction
Conclusions
Chapter 9: A theory of language 314
Shifts in Social Semiosis
The Circle and the Social
The Colonial Principle
Chauvinism and the Sundering of the Circle.
On Metaphysics
A Third Domain?
The Circle as Analysand
Endnotes 357
Bibliography 427
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Forms in the Abyss: A Philosophical Bridge Between Sartre and Derrida
by Steve Martinot
Temple University Press, 2007 Cloth: 978-1-59213-439-7 Paper: 978-1-59213-440-3
The relationship between the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and the post-structuralist Jecques Derrida has never been fully examined until now. In Forms in the Abyss, Steve Martinot finds, between these two important philosophical thinkers of the twentieth century, "a common uncommonality" by which he sees them confront each other as "kindred souls" despite their vast differences.
Martinot argues that a bridge between these two thinkers can be constructed. He demonstrates that one can use the critical tools provided by Derrida, and the forms of discourse and reasoning developed by Sartre, to set the two in dialogue with each other. In the process, Martinot develops a theory of dialogue that incorporates both ethics and form and contributes a new way of thinking about critical and social theory. More importantly, he adds a new ethical and political imperative to postmodern thought that many dritics have often found missing in the works of thinkers like Derrida.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Steve Martinot is Instructor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at San Francisco State University. He is the author of The Rule of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance (Temple), editor of two previous books, and translator of Racism by Albert Memmi.
REVIEWS
"The project of transcoding Sartrean language into the Derridean coordinates, and vice-versa, is an unseasonable one whose reward lies in the defamiliarization of both. Martinot's minute, technical readings avoid all facile ideological generalizations and send us back to the original texts with new eyes."
—Fredric Jameson
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
History and Writing
The Metaphysics of a Common Language
The Narrative of Metaphysics
The Historical Dimension
A Common Uncommonality
Chapter 2: The Form of Uncommon Logic 37
Invention
Différance
Néantisation
On Heidegger
Chapter 3 - The Parameters of Homology 73
Extensions of the Double Non-negation
Sartre's Use of the Skew Relation as a Formalism
Derrida's Use of the Skew Relation in his Thematics
The Middle Voice
Always Already
Chapter 4: Form and Structure 103
On Form
On Structure
The Derridean Circle
Mediation
The Triadic Circle in its Historical Moment
Conclusion: The Structures of Ethnocentrism
Chapter 5: The Look and its Inner Narrativizations 150
The Look
The other-as-object
The Look
The Meta-narrativity of the Look
A Critique and Extension of the NMN-structure
The Form of Form
Chapter 6: The Sartre-Derrida Homology 180
The Inside of the Outside, the Supplement
A Note on "Infrastructure"
Separation in Immediacy, the Hymen
The Role of Narrative
The Social Text of the Glyph
Dissemination
Reading the Imagination as Reading
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Circularities and Foundations 238
Bringing the Incommensurable into Dialogue
The Reader
The Circle
Derrida's Deconstruction of the Subject
Sartre's Deconstruction of the Subject
Chapter 8: A Theory of Dialogue 270
An Elementary Particle of the Social
Being for Others as a Micro-socius
The Boundary between Subjectivities
The Ontological Structure of Dialogue
The Semiotic Structure of Dialogue
The Derridean Moment of the Social
Listening and (Re)Construction
Conclusions
Chapter 9: A theory of language 314
Shifts in Social Semiosis
The Circle and the Social
The Colonial Principle
Chauvinism and the Sundering of the Circle.
On Metaphysics
A Third Domain?
The Circle as Analysand
Endnotes 357
Bibliography 427
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE