Between Law and Freedom: The Link between Literature and Democracy in Jacques Derrida
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/tn.v7i1.29040Keywords:
Derrida, Literature, Democracy, Law, Responsability, Freedom, Undecidability, Democracy to comeAbstract
This paper examines the link of mutual dependence between literature and democracy established by Jacques Derrida. According to Derrida, although democracy is the condition of possibility of literature, this makes possible an opening of concepts—law, responsibility and freedom—fundamental for democracy. Firstly, Derrida's ideas about the relationships between literature and law are reviewed. Derrida's characterization of the literary institution is then analyzed: in particular, we focus on the right to say everything, the irresponsibility of the author and secrecy, and their links with democracy. At the same time that it represents a novel way of presenting the relationship between literature and politics, we maintain that literature allows Derrida to question a restricted conception of democracy, conceived as calculation and mere equality of subjects before the law. The link between literature and democracy (as well as the democracy in question) is situated in its historical political context of production and its theoretical and historical connections are shown with the democracy to come elaborated contemporaneously by Derrida.
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