ABSTRACT
In drawing attention to the philosophical allegiances of most literary criticism and literary theory, and of literature as read through their glasses, however, Jacques Derrida is not "attacking" this tradition, any more than he is attacking the philosophers he reads with care and commitment. Paradoxically, the works by Derrida most cited and most imitated in readings of literary texts by literary critics are those on philosophical texts. The polarization between the some versions of Derrida's work, though understandable, is quite out of keeping with the work itself. The rejection of the "literary" Derrida can be seen as the repetition by philosophy, once again, of its founding move, even when the "philosophical" Derrida who emerges is shown to have profoundly questioned the philosophical tradition. However, Derrida places his emphasis not on singularity as such, but on the puzzling yet productive relation between singularity and generality, a relation which for him is not merely a paradoxical coexistence but a structural interdependence.
