Writing and event

The crisis of representation at the turn of the 21st century, whereby signs are seen as having lost their power to represent, is clarified by an inquiry into the concept of making present something that is nonpresent, which underlies the notion of representation. In this connection, Jacques Derrida's principle of differance & his theory of writing & event are critically examined; Derrida is argued to have two different concepts of event, one that precedes the occurrence of textual differing & one that occurs only in textual context. By considering the progressive evacuation of memory traces through excessive repetition, eg in ecstatic ritual, the first concept of event is defined as an encounter with alterity that instantiates a condition free of symbolic fixation, allowing the birth of something new. 11 References. J. Hitchcock