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13 Derrida and Dante The Promise of Writing and the Piety of Broken Promises Francis J. Ambrosio In The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida,1 John Caputo argues convincingly that in Derrida’s more recent writings we discover, to our surprise, that he has ‘‘gotten religion’’ or, more accurately, that it has gotten him; indeed, that it already had him in the beginning. The ‘‘cut’’ that deconstruction traces copies the style of the cut of the circumcision made by the mohel in Derrida’s flesh. As a mark, Derrida reads this cut as a shibboleth, the mark of a two-edged sword that cuts both ways, that is, ambivalently. The ambivalent mark of the cut is the ‘‘bind’’ of a promise destined always to be broken, a covenant that always requires keeping. ‘‘Piety’’ means being caught in this bind; prayers and tears are the style, prefigured by the cut, of its expression , which for Derrida and all of his tribe, is writing. Writing is the mark of promises made, broken and kept with style: Yes! Come! The argument made in this essay is that Caputo’s reading of Derrida ’s piety is not only a thoroughly believable thesis, but one that we should have been expecting for a long time now because it is strictly necessary; though, of course, necessity is always one of the most surprising of recognitions. Anyone who sustains a commitment with enough style to become identified with it, has by that very fact ‘‘got religion’’ in the most primitive and important sense of the word (Socrates is a good example, relevant to Augustine, who Caputo thinks is particularly relevant to Derrida). Derrida’s commitment to deconstruction , certainly stylish enough for him to be identified with it and 222 it with him, has the structure of all religious conversions: recognizing that one is caught in the bind of an ambivalent promise. This is the blood lineage that Derrida shares with Abraham, Elijah, Socrates, Yeshua, and in a particular way, with Augustine. This essay attempts to add one more evidential link to this chain of familiarity by showing that, through his relation to Augustine, Dante Alighieri’s style of piety, as expressed in his Commedia, closely parallels Derrida’s, particularly in that both involve the promise of writing, broken and kept, that the prayers of both are expressed in the form of a question— ‘‘Whom do I love when I love my God?’’—and that the tears of each are tears of repentance. More specifically, the essay will compare the piety of Derrida and Dante in terms of the following themes: (1) prodigality, the broken promise of writing; (2) piety, the keeping of the promise in the form of the question ‘‘Whom do I love when I love my God?’’; (3) conversion , the call of the Other heard as the memory of a woman; (4) prophecy, the hope of writing; (5) con/circumfession, shedding tears of repentance; (6) forgiveness, the redemption of the debt of broken promises expressed as the love of writing; and (7) vision/blindness, on the joy of seeing the face of God . . . and living. Finally, the essay turns to a consideration of the question, what difference might this relationship of significant difference amid enduring similarity regarding their styles of piety have for our understanding of Derrida, Dante, and ourselves. One disclaimer: the following essay is a purely occasional piece. The occasion is a further reflection on some of the issues raised in Caputo’s reading of the religious element in the writing of Derrida in Prayers and Tears. In what follows, not only the principal thesis, but also the texture and grain of its working out, done in Caputo’s own style of fine craftsmanship, is deeply and, it is hoped, recognizably ingrained. As an occasional piece, it would not be possible to do anything other or further than what Caputo has done, without presuming on the reader’s familiarity with his sketch of Derrida’s profile, seen from the ‘‘religious’’ perspective, as a supplement. Further, it is necessary to presume some level of familiarity with Dante Alighieri and his great poem. What results will certainly be no more than a pair of sketches, perhaps even caricatures, of two faces, profiled in writing. The hope of the present writing, itself something of a gesture of piety, an act of reverence, if you will, is to occasion a celebration, a small local festival in honor of...

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