herstory

Elwood 1991

Introduction

1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Dawn

New lives can only be dreamed of.

1991 Fish dream , pastel on paper, artwork for the film Sophie(1991)

Derrida invents the word hauntology: 'the sphere of philosophy devoted to thinking about 'being', or 'ultimate existence.'

Long before Derrida deconstructed Joyce, the American nuclear scientist Murray Gell-Mann was reading Finnegan's Wake for pleasure. When Gell-Mann discovered a new species of sub-atomic particles he playfully decided to name them 'quarks', selecting the word from the [book]...For Joyce the literary neologist [inventor on new words], the word quark is open to a variety of punning and amusing interpretations. For Derrida it could doubtless be deconstructed to the point of meaninglessness. For Gell-Mann, and now the entire scientific world, it is the precise name for a species of sub-atomic particles having a spin 1/2 and electric charge +2/3 or -1/3 units, which combine to form the hadrons but have not been detected in a free state. In the above parable of interpretations, one is a literary use of language, another is a scientific use. What, if anything, the other is, remains entirely up to you (as, of course, Derrida would agree).

Strathern, Paul, 2003, p.42-43, The Essential Derrida, Virgin