ABSTRACT
Derrida tries to be faithful to the structural infinity of language by acknowledging the plurivocal character of words and the dynamic interrelations of elements within a text. But more than this, he tries to exploit the structural characteristics of language to produce a philosophical effect. Derrida’s prioritization of writing over speech depends upon a very particular understanding of the term ‘writing’. Although this term includes the physical inscription of signs, Derrida also uses the word to name the ‘secondary’ condition in which such signs find themselves. The form of Derrida’s challenge to general theology is a strategy of subversion called ‘deconstruction’, the turning of logocentric thinking back upon itself. He tries to show the impossibility of theology because language disseminates meaning in an excessive and plural way. Derrida uses the analysis of death and its related metaphors as a means of exploring the other of a metaphysics which is always grounded in the positive presence of ‘life’.
