Interpretations of Plato, St├йphane Mallarm├й, and Philippe SollersтАЩ writings in three essays: тАЬPlatoтАЩs Pharmacy,тАЭ тАЬThe Double Session,тАЭ and тАЬDissemination.тАЭ
тАЬThe English version of Dissemination [is] an able translation by Barbara Johnson . . . DerridaтАЩs 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 strivesтАФagainst the grain of languageтАФto offer a sober revelation of truth. LiteratureтАФon the other handтАФflaunts its own meretriciousness, abandons itself to the Dionysiac play of language. In DisseminationтАФmore than any previous workтАФDerrida joins in the revelry, weaving a complex pattern of puns, verbal echoes and allusions, intended to тАШdeconstructтАЩ both the pretension of criticism to tell the truth about literature, and the pretension of philosophy to the literature of truth.тАЭ тАФPeter Dews, The New Statesman