Archive for October, 2008
Carolyn Steedman on Derrida’s Archive Fever:
“Many English-speaking readers – this one, too – have assumed that ‘Archive Fever’ has something to do with archives (rather than with psycho-analysis, or memory, or finding things); and even when the reaction has been more philosophical, Derrida has been addressed through his archon and the arkheion. But commentators have [...]
Macquarie’s own Vice-Chancellor offered comment on Australia’s history teaching last week. A national curriculum had been proposed, setting Australian history into a world-historical context. ‘Queen of the Humanities’, Schwartz called History – a downgraded cousin of the ‘Queen of the Sciences’ vied over by Philosophy and Theology perhaps, (according to Schwartz’ post, neither are claimants [...]
My friend Byron has been asking questions around the question of how we relate to, and among, such things as the future, memory, anticipation and happiness and joy. Here are a few. He comments that “imaginative anticipation and memory are crucial elements in our deliberations and in the shaping of the loves and hopes that [...]
Spent some time flicking through the opening pages of Writing and Difference today. Was struck by just how much Derrida uses history – and historicity – as a springboard into his philosophy. It’s a critical theme through a few of the essays, and notably Violence and Metaphysics.
If it recedes one day, leaving behind its works [...]
