:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Friday, October 08, 2004 ::

The Voice of a Pure Imperative

My Literary Criticism and Theory class is all I expected it would be---pure propaganda. For example:

"It is best to take him at his word when he lets into his text the voice of a pure imperative."

-- French theorist Michel Foucault speaking, in his classic work "The History of Sexuality", about the writings of infamous sexual defiant Marquis de Sade--

Question: Why are Post-Strucuralists (and, by extension, their cousins the Deconstructionists) so eager to bend over backwards for their fellow nihilistic but when it comes to say, the writings of St. John Chrysostom that Derrida rants against, Foucault's advice suddenly doesn't apply any longer?

I'd ask these kinds of questions in class but I'd like to avoid getting lynched as a representative of the only unprotected class on the university campus: the white, heterosexual male who dares to question the relativist hermeneutic.

I suppose I'll be content musing about theory issues on the blog while I nod vigorously like Pavlov's dog when I'm in class.

Update: As John notes in the comments, Jacques Derrida succumbed to cancer over the weekend.

:: Karl :: 7:46:00 AM [Link] ::