ABSTRACT

Colonization has its imperatives and it has been rightly observed that, halfway down the cat’s throat, any self-respecting mouse ought at least to consider beginning to talk about ‘us cats’. For similar reasons, perhaps an essay entitled ‘Bryn Glas’ ought at least to consider beginning to talk about Jacques Derrida’s work called Glas. That dismaying celebration of the relationship between texts confronts the reader with two parallel columns of print. On the left hand side, the philosopher Hegel engages in a rational analysis of the concept of the family, the law and the state. Meanwhile, on the right, the text cites and discusses the writings of a notorious thief, homosexual and transvestite-Jean Genet-along with passages about matters such as proper names, signatures, onomatopoeia and the process of signification at large. The mode of negotiation between the columns becomes, of course, a crucial factor.