Page 112 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes Difference, then, is this disparity between signs; it is the play of sign substitution in which one
sign in any discourse always remains other than itself and points to another which is other than
itself. Meaning always gets passed along and never attained. More importantly, Difference is the
condition of play which precedes and makes possible all sign production or use. Difference means
that no sign achieves what it signifies; it is the disruption of presence; nothing is ever made
present; all sings declare an absence.
The Role of Levi-Strauss
The role of Levi-Strauss in this essay is, I think, to epitomize the situation. Levi-Strauss uses the
language of metaphysics to criticize metaphysics.
"The language of metaphysics" is a language of oppositions, opposition between being and non-
being, truth and error, God and man, form and matter, subject and object, nature and culture.
Levi-Strauss focuses in particular on the nature-culture distinction. In a system of thought which
maintains this distinction, the distinction should hold for all cases, at least insofar as the system
itself is consistent and fixed; the center should designate the same invariable presence.
However, the opposition breaks down with the case of the prohibition of incest. The prohibition
of incest, which Levi-Strauss made an object of study, is both cultural (in the sense that it is subject
to a norm of culture and is relative and particular) and natural (in the sense of being universal and
spontaneous).
The incest prohibition thus disrupts or thwarts the dichotomy so crucial to a certain cosmology.
The very center swallows itself up, at least for this system.
The important point to note here is that the concept of centered structure does not meet its own
requirements for being a centered structure. Derrida states that this means "language bears within
itself the necessity of its own critique."
There are two ways to deal with this situation: (1) to step outside of philosophy, no longer to
employ its discourse; and (2) "conserving all these old concepts within the domain of empirical
discovery while here and there denouncing their limits" . That is to say, the second choice is to
"preserve as an instrument something whose value" is criticized.
Levi-Strauss takes the second way. The bricoleur is a person who employs the concept of
metaphysics to get something done while yet critiquing the limits and adequacy of those concepts.
He "uses the means at hand."
Levi-Strauss thus studies other cultures, their myths, but realizes full well that his own discourse
about myths is a kind of mythology. For it presupposes and requires concepts which break down,
i.e., which are the result of a play as unavoidable as the play in the cultures whose myths he
studies.
The main point here is that Levi-Strauss offers a way to confront what is our situation anyway.
That is, since we are stuck using the concepts of metaphysics while being also incapable of accepting
them, we need a way to confront the situation. Levi-Strauss suggests bricolage, not passing
beyond philosophy but using philosophy to critique itself.
Two Interpretations of Interpretation
This position that Levi-Strauss offers is middle-ground. It rests between two interpretations of
interpretation, just as, for Derrida, the entire West does. Taking a little from both interpretations,
the West is not more of one than the other.
Two interpretations of interpretation means two differing ways of confronting "the situation,"
where "the situation" is also an interpretation, a play, a playful discourse-not a centered structure
which true interpretation is necessary, not "true."
One way of confronting the situation of the rupture of the concept of centered structure is to regret
the rupture, to be sad and nostalgic and "live" the necessity of interpretation as an exile." Derrida
equates this position or interpretation with Rousseau. Its principal feature is that it considers the
noncenter as a loss of center. It would rather have the security and certainty of a fixed presence,

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