Structure and content Glas (book)

following structure of jean genet s ce qui est resté d un rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés bien réguliers, et foutu aux chiottes [ remains of rembrandt torn 4 equal pieces , flushed down toilet ], book written in 2 columns in different type sizes. left column hegel, right column genet. each column weaves way around quotations of kinds, both works discussed , dictionaries—derrida s side notes , described marginalia, supplementary comments, lengthy quotations, , dictionary definitions. words cut in half quotation may last several pages. dutch commentator, recalling derrida s observation wrote 2 hands, 1 commenting on other, noted two-column format aims open space individual texts excluded, in auto-deconstructive mode.

allan megill described text literary-philosophical collage. typography important part of text s presentation , argument; english translation designed richard eckersley, noted renderings of deconstructionist texts. gregor dotzauer, writing der tagesspiegel, argues 2 columns explicitly phallic symbols, opposing each other in power struggle neither can win. gayatri chakravorty spivak, in 1977 article published in diacritics, sees different image in 2 columns, of 2 legs: father s phallus works in mother s hymen, between 2 legs, glas works @ origins, between 2 columns, between hegel , genet.

but spivak points out (since nothing in derrida singular carrier of meaning), 2 columns overflow signification—they architectural elements: capital, pyramid, pillar, belfry , on. in between columns derrida attempts place own signature. hegel father author, , derrida notes own father had died during process of writing glas. derrida s signature, d, found in many places: debris of d-words scattered on pages. derrida describes (décrit), writes d (dé-écrit), , cries d (dé-crit). spivak notes, can read glas fiction of derrida s proper name turning thing, of autobiographical autotherapy or interminable self-analysis against self-duping of self-sovereignty, crypting signature becomes impossible spell out.

autobiography , signature

the specific literary genre problematized in glas autobiography, , inquiry traces concept of signature, in autobiography marks identity of author narrator of text. following plato, derrida sees relation between author , text 1 of filiation, unlike plato s idea of filiation, involves father , child, derrida author alternates between father , mother of text. in relationship, author s signature becomes guarantor of text s truth, becomes surrogate parent, according jane marie todd. genet column discusses autobiographical writings, 1 of issues genet s name—it not of father, of mother, abandoned him shortly after birth. according todd, in mother abandons bastard child, leaving name, derrida finds figure author/text/signature relationship.