Editing Différance (section)

==Overview==
Derrida first uses the term {{lang|fr|différance}} in his 1963 paper "{{lang|fr|Cogito et histoire de la folie|italic=no}}".<ref>"The economy of this writing is a regulated relationship between that which exceeds and the exceeded totality: the {{lang|fr|différance|italic=no}} of the absolute excess." (Derrida, J., 1978. Cogito and the History of Madness. From ''[[Writing and Difference]]''. Trans. A. Bass. London & New York: Routledge. p. 75.) Schultz and Fried in their vast bibliography of Derrida's work cite this sentence as where "JD introduces {{lang|fr|différance|italic=no}}" for the first time. (Schultz, W.R. & Fried, L.B., 1992. ''Jacques Derrida Bibliography''. London & New York: Garland. p. 12.)</ref> The term {{lang|fr|différance}} then played a key role in Derrida's engagement with the philosophy of [[Edmund Husserl]] in ''[[Speech and Phenomena]]''. It was further elaborated in various other works, notably in his essay "{{lang|fr|Différance|italic=no}}" and in the interviews collected in ''Positions''.<ref>See ''Speech and Phenomena and other essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs'', trans. David B. Allison (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), "{{lang|fr|Différance|italic=no}}". ''Margins of Philosophy'', trans. Alan Bass (Chicago & London: Chicago University Press, 1982) and ''Positions'', trans. Alan Bass (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1971).</ref>

The {{angbr|a}} of {{lang|fr|différance}} is a deliberate misspelling of {{lang|fr|différence}}, though the two are pronounced identically, {{IPA|fr|difeʁɑ̃s|IPA}} ({{lang|fr|différance}} plays on the fact that the French verb {{lang|fr|[[wikt:différer|différer]]}} means both "to defer" and "to differ"). This misspelling highlights the fact that its written form is not heard, and serves to further subvert the traditional privileging of speech over writing (see [[archi-writing|arche-writing]] and [[logocentrism]]), as well as the distinction between the sensible and the intelligible. The difference articulated by the {{angbr|a}} in {{lang|fr|différance}} is not apparent to the senses via sound, "but neither can it belong to intelligibility, to the ideality which is not fortuitously associated with the objectivity of ''theorein'' or understanding."<ref>"{{lang|fr|Différance|italic=no}}", ''Margins of Philosophy'', p. 5.</ref> This is because the language of understanding is already caught up in sensible metaphors—for example, {{lang|grc|θεωρεῖν}} ({{Transliteration|grc|theōrein}}) means "to see" in [[Ancient Greek]].

In the essay "{{lang|fr|Différance|italic=no}}" Derrida indicates that {{lang|fr|différance}} gestures at a number of heterogeneous features that govern the production of textual meaning. Words and signs are not identical with what they signify, and only acquire meaning through their differences from other words and signs; meaning arises from the differentiation of words from one another, and the consequential engendering of binary oppositions and hierarchies. Thus, meaning is forever "deferred" or postponed through an endless chain of signifiers. Derrida refers to this process as ''espacement'' or "spacing" and ''temporisation'' or "temporising".

Derrida developed the concept of {{lang|fr|différance}} deeper in the course of an argument against the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] of [[Edmund Husserl|Husserl]], who sought a rigorous analysis of the role of [[memory]] and [[perception]] in our understanding of sequential items such as [[music]] or [[language]]. Derrida's approach argues that because the perceiver's mental state is constantly in [[flux]] and differs from one [[Reading (process)|re-reading]] to the next, a general theory describing this phenomenon is unachievable.

A term related to the idea of {{lang|fr|différance}} in Derrida's thought is the ''supplement'', "itself bound up in a supplementary play of meaning which defies semantic reduction."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Norris|first1=Christopher|title=Deconstruction : theory and practice|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415280105|page=32|edition=3.}}</ref>