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The Gift of Example: Derrida and the Origins of the Eighteenth Century
- Eighteenth-Century Studies
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 40, Number 3, Spring 2007
- pp. 467-472
- 10.1353/ecs.2007.0018
- Article
- Additional Information
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This piece reflects on the status of the example in Derrida's writing, especially the example of Rousseau in Of Grammatology. Whereas Derrida's work is often considered non- or even anti-historical I suggest, rather, that it tends to consider the text as having a complex historicity and temporality, indeed, that it is a kind of event. Reading has to respect both the singulârity of the text as well as what Derrida maintains are the "numerous epochs" (plusieurs ages) of any text. I point also to the fertility of Derrida's writing on the discourse of origins and outline one possible way to extend Derrida's work along those lines.