Derrida to the letter: Ethics and politics of “perverformatif” in La Carte postale and beyond

Abstract

In this paper, we are focusing on the neologism “perverformative” used by Jacques Derrida in The Postcard and in Marx & Sons. If Derrida is another “master of the perverformative”, as he called the “plato” of The Postcard, it is not because he denies the Law or his “truth”, but because he needs both of them to ensure the impact of something like a challenge. What is performed performatively and “en abyme” in the Envois is replay by a perverse desire to make this law happen and to divert it. Our hypothesis is that this is precisely what happens in the idiom of Jacques Derrida who speak a language that is not one’s own (The Monolingualism of the Other) and for whom the words “contain their own perversity” (The Spatial Arts). We will therefore examine the traces of this term, its virtuality at work and its linguistic, ethical and political impact and scope in the thought of Jacques Derrida.