On the Great Literary Strike. Jacques Derrida and the Deviations of Performativity

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the performativity of literature in Derrida’s thought, as well as its political possibilities to interrupt the constitution of symbolic orders (identities, races, genders). The capability of literature to “sabotage” the naturalized production of an order through the operativity of the discourse resides in the particularity of its performative force, which Derrida names in Force de loi as “force de rupture”, or the right to strike in every interpretation. In this sense, the performativity of literature is not about constituting, but destituting; it is not about producing or positing the world, but deposing it. This study about the oblique force of literature will show its political character, as well as its tight link with democracy: the opening or the hospitality that both literature and democracy demand is a permanent possibility of sabotage and dis-interpellation.