Of Grammatology by Jacques Derrida
From the annals of our top fifty books in Philosophy originally published on Goodreads
Of Grammatology established Jacques Derrida as a major figure in contemporary philosophy and introduced deconstruction. Included in this work are two key early Derrida essays, “The Violence of the Letter: From Levi-Strauss to Rousseau” and “From/Of the Supplement to the Source: The Theory of Writing” which, taken together, offer a deconstruction of the speech/writing dichotomy and a challenge to linguistics (and meaning) at its foundational core.
In “The Violence of the Letter,” Derrida argues that whereas writing had been thought of as being derived from speech, which retains its primacy in the relation, Derrida shows how this assumption leads thinkers from Levi-Strauss to Rousseau aground and reveals the instability of the speech-writing hierarchy. By deconstructing this binary, Derrida demonstrates that writing is not a mere supplement to speech but rather plays an essential role in the constitution of meaning itself. This challenges the traditional logocentric view and exposes the inherent violence in privileging speech over writing.
In the second essay, 'From/Of the Supplement to the Source,' Derrida develops his now infamous reading of Saussure’s use of the 'sign' and begins the work of developing the concept of différance that he continues in Writing and Difference. Derrida critiques Saussure's structuralist framework by showing how the meaning of signs is always deferred and constituted by their differences from other signs, rather than by any inherent or fixed meaning. This marks the birth of post-structuralism, laying the philosophical groundwork for postmodernism by destabilizing the idea of fixed meanings and challenging the notion of a singular, unchanging source of truth.
Initially, Derrida names this new approach to knowledge and meaning-making 'grammatology,' but it was deconstruction that stuck as the most recognizable name for this post-structuralist approach. Derrida's concept of "deconstruction" has its roots in Martin Heidegger's use of the term "Destruktion" (and sometimes "Abbau") in his philosophical work. Heidegger used "Destruktion" to refer to the process of breaking down traditional metaphysical concepts to reveal their historical and contingent foundations.
When Derrida adapted this concept, he transformed and expanded it, leading to what became known as "deconstruction." While "Destruktion" was translated into French as "destruction," Derrida's use of "déconstruction" signified a different approach—more focused on the internal workings of texts and the deconstruction of binary oppositions rather than simply dismantling traditions. So, in a way, "deconstruction" is a translation and transformation of Heidegger's "Destruktion." The term has since passed into French and English with Derrida's unique connotations attached to it.
Deconstruction involves the critical analysis of texts to reveal the inherent contradictions and instabilities within them. It challenges the traditional binary oppositions that govern western thought. What appear to be a simple binary oppositions are never neutral; one term is always given precedence over the other. Moreover, this dominant term is established as the norm or natural through cultural and linguistic practices that privilege it. For example, the concept of woman is constructed in opposition to the concept of man, to prop-up his rationality and strength, and healthy masculine bodies are established and maintained as norm through social and political forces. Deconstruction seeks to show that this hierarchy is constructed, not inherent, and that the supposed binary is actually one, and is used to obliterate true otherness.
This edition offers Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s original translation as well as her truly helpful and insightful introduction to Derrida’s work. The book is worth it’s price for this introduction alone! Readers already interested in linguistics and writing will find this work difficult but well worth their efforts. It helps to have just read the works to which Derrida refers in his text, since he assumes the reader will know these works beforehand and doesn’t hold the readers hand. Derrida’s style is famously difficult, and for some it will be cumbersome while others will revel in the poetry of his prose.
Finally, we have chosen this work to be in our top fifty works of philosophy because it is Derrida’s first major work and it remains a very important work; but readers more interested in the history of philosophy (as opposed to linguistics, theories of writing, and Saussure) might find it more productive to begin elsewhere - Dissemination and The Margins of Philosophy are also both good beginning points into his earlier works.