Jacques Derrida Dismantles Modernity
Steve Martin had a standup bit consisting of him giving ideas to the audience about how they can be funny, too. One of the ideas: The next time you go to a party, as soon as you arrive, throw all the food on the floor.
Martin’s ironic idea is a metaphor for what Jacques Derrida did in Baltimore back in 1966, and, unlike Martin, he wasn’t joking around.
Derrida was Supposed to Celebrate Structuralism. Instead, He Attacked It
In 1966, Johns Hopkins University hosted a conference on “The Language of Criticism and the Science of Man.” The intent was to celebrate the arrival in America of the language philosophy known as “structuralism,” which had originated in France in the early 1900s. David Mikics, Who Was Jacques Derrida (Yale, 2009), 94.
Jacques Derrida had been given the honor of delivering the final lecture at a conference held to celebrate the coming of structuralism to America.
Instead of celebrating structuralism, Derrida demolished it. In the words of Derrida’s biographer David Mikics, Derrida effectively announced “structuralism’s death” at the event meant to celebrate its birth in America.
In his lecture, Derrida pointed out that the structuralist’s rejection of all centers (sources of meaning…
