ABSTRACT
The significance of sonority with respect to metaphor and narrative is the role it plays as a textual mode of mediation of the ontological grounding of identity. Sound is the centripetal dynamic of the iconic moment, that is, the symbolic unity of metaphor, and the mimetic configuration of narrative whereby univocity is achieved. Jaques Derrida is critical of Martin Heidegger’s approach to this issue of ontological unity. He points to the ‘we’ in the text of Sein und Zeit as revealing the unquestioned transcendental subject even in this radical attempt to disclose the grounding of Being. The question of Being arising from its hidden power is essentially dialectical between suspicion and affirmation of identity, or presence. Identity is always under suspicion. In the condition of constant temporal flux of being-in-the-world, there is the propensity of endless questioning so that suspicion is never lifted. Identity is affirmed in the activity of being-in-the-world through the mediation of textual narrative.
