Interpretations of Plato, StΓ©phane MallarmΓ©, and Philippe Sollersβ writings in three essays: βPlatoβs Pharmacy,β βThe Double Session,β and βDissemination.β
βThe English version of Dissemination [is] an able translation by Barbara Johnson . . . Derridaβs 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 strivesβagainst the grain of languageβto offer a sober revelation of truth. Literatureβon the other handβflaunts its own meretriciousness, abandons itself to the Dionysiac play of language. In Disseminationβmore than any previous workβDerrida joins in the revelry, weaving a complex pattern of puns, verbal echoes and allusions, intended to βdeconstructβ both the pretension of criticism to tell the truth about literature, and the pretension of philosophy to the literature of truth.β βPeter Dews, The New Statesman