Come here Aeneas, I want you

Authors

Ika Willis, Bristol UniversityFollow

RIS ID

77473

Publication Details

Willis, I. 2006, 'Come here Aeneas, I want you', Parallax, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 69-82.

Abstract

'The epoch of logocentrism is a moment of the global effacement of the signifier', writes Derrida in Of Grammatology. Logocentrism fantasizes writing as a transcription of, or as a transparent vehicle for, speech; similarly, it fantasizes speech as a transparent vehicle for the communication of signifieds between a speaker and a listener who are present to each other. In other words, logocentrism's 'effacement of the signifier' means that writing is thought as a medium for the communication of signifieds across space and through time, merely extending the range of speech, which in turn is thought as a transparent medium of presence-to-presence communication across space and through time. This fantasy is enabled by the invention of phonetic writing. It is this technological moment which enables logocentrism's effacement of the signifier, that is, of technologies of inscription: it aims at suppressing consideration of historically and technologically specific organizations of the relationship between speech, writing, and presence in space and time, as well as of the labour of writing, speaking, reading and listening.