Bumble: Derrida: differance

Difference

Derrida’s


Discombobulating perception of language reminds me very much of De Saussure’s explanation of language and the ambiguity of words and meanings.

Difference according to Derrida is neither a word or a concept. From his explanation that it can mean, “distinction, inequality, or discernibility,” proves the point that a word as general as Difference can be packed with an enormous assortment of meanings and contexts. I was thinking about all of the different ways to use Different. He describes this term to mean ambiguous, there is essentially no meaning, it is too general. Unless you understand the context of what is going on, it is essentially impossible to define.

I loved how Derrida used the word “Assemblage” to attempt to define and describe the term difference. His parallel to De Saussure is very strong in this portion of the essay. He wrote that assemblage allows for, “bringing- together proposed here has the structure of an interlacing, a weaving, or a web, which would allow the different threads and different lines of sense or force to separate again, as well as being ready to bind others together” (Derrida 121). The meaning of words is entirely based on pulling together your past experiences and knowledge to try to make sense of something. Every single context is different, and therefore the lightest change of a letter (like he talks about with the letter a) and the pulling together an infinite number of ways to perceive a word in its context, changes the entire perception of what someone is saying. It is very powerful because it could even be a different meaning to the same person five minutes from when it was said before. The world is always changing, so your mental state and mind set might have shifted dramatically even within such a small portion of time. That is why I love his explanation of the word through this other word ‘assemblage.’ Derrida likes to think of difference as a, “whole complex of meanings…” (Derrida 125).

One of the large problems with this way of thinking is that people look for definitions, “that moves according to the discursive line of a rational order” (Derrida 123).

Derrida gives credit to De Saussure to the conflation of the terms arbitrary and difference. Even though it seems to be a common perception in post modernism to consider language and word selection quite dependent on the context. Whether it is Machery and Bhartes discussing the Gap and Tmesis, or it is talking about defining a culture according to Althusser.

Also, if differences in language have been produced, as nothing is natural ( or fallen from the sky as he puts it) and everything is culturally created, then who exactly created the various meanings?