Of Grammatology

How does Derrida’s work compare to the philosophical work of his contemporaries in the mid-20th century? Choose one contemporary thinker to explore deeply in comparison to Derrida’s work in Of Grammatology. How are Derrida’s theories influenced by this thinker?

Apply Derrida’s deconstruction to a film or text. What binaries do you see in the work? How does applying the technique of deconstruction alter your understanding of the work?

Derrida, alongside Nietzsche and Heidegger, has been criticized for promoting nihilism. Briefly define nihilism. Is Derrida’s work nihilistic? Why or why not?

Derrida makes clear that his aim is to situate speech and writing on equal ground. Does his argument accomplish this? Or does he, in some cases, indeed privilege writing over speech? In either case, how so?

Derrida argues that philosophers have built conceptions of truth and reality based on their belief in the presence of the external world. However, only looking at the world through the lens of what is true or what exists, he notes, blinds people to the importance of absence and negation. What role do absence and negation play in Derrida’s philosophies? How do these two factors change the meaning of ideas?

What are some model examples of “différance”? How can différance be used to challenge the meaning of a text or concept?

Explore the various traces of a single sign. What different images or concepts emerge from this single word? How do these traces contribute to or undermine the meaning of the word?

Derrida argues that logocentrism stems from ethnocentrism. How does deconstruction, in contrast, foster a critique of Western philosophical tradition?