Interpretations of Plato, Stรฉphane Mallarmรฉ, and Philippe Sollersโ writings in three essays: โPlatoโs Pharmacy,โ โThe Double Session,โ and โDissemination.โ
โThe English version of Dissemination [is] an able translation by Barbara Johnson . . . Derridaโs central contention is that language is haunted by dispersal, absence, loss, the risk of unmeaning, a risk which is starkly embodied in all writing. The distinction between philosophy and literature therefore becomes of secondary importance. Philosophy vainly attempts to control the irrecoverable dissemination of its own meaning, it strivesโagainst the grain of languageโto offer a sober revelation of truth. Literatureโon the other handโflaunts its own meretriciousness, abandons itself to the Dionysiac play of language. In Disseminationโmore than any previous workโDerrida joins in the revelry, weaving a complex pattern of puns, verbal echoes and allusions, intended to โdeconstructโ both the pretension of criticism to tell the truth about literature, and the pretension of philosophy to the literature of truth.โ โPeter Dews, The New Statesman