ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews Derrida’s philosophical stratagem known as différance, which is essential to any understanding of deconstruction. Said review sets the stage for an overarching theme of the book, that of the eternal youth’s attempt to be free of the demands of both time and space. It further draws parallels between différance and a form of desire that the ancient Greeks called pothos, which is a desire for that which is far off, that which exists in another time and place, a desire that also forms the basis of nostalgia. Psychologist James Hillman considers this form of desire to be a central theme for the eternal youth, a mythic figure that is so perennial as to be considered archetypal. This chapter further draws parallels between deconstruction and this mythic figure by an examination of the cultural theorist Denis de Rougemont and the philosopher M. C. Dillon. Both describe a similar desire typified by tales of chivalric romance like that of Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere.
