Untitled

Authors

Elaine Kelly, University of Technology, Sydney

Abstract

The function of a title, as Jacques Derrida tells us, circumscribes, borders, orients, locates, and contains; it becomes ‘a code of legibility’ (Derrida 1986: 197). When we give something a title, we attempt to centre the capacity of the author to determine meaning in the content. In a word – ‘anchored’, ‘unanchored’, ‘home’, ‘bounded’, ‘horizons’ – the author (I) can ease the reader into a text, give them a sense of meaning and purpose. 'A title takes place only on the border of a work: were it only to let itself be incorporated in the corpus it entitles, were it only to be a part, like one of its internal elements or one of its pieces, it would no longer play the role of having title-value. Were it completely outside, detached and separated from the body by a distance greater than that which the law, right, and code ordain, there would be no more title' (Derrida 1986, 197).

Recommended Citation

Kelly, Elaine, Untitled, Law Text Culture, 17, 2013, 273-277.
Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol17/iss1/13