Machinic Deconstruction : literature/ politics/ technics

Taking its cue from Jacques Derrida’s concept of différance, Machinic Deconstruction: Literature / Politics / Technics addresses the question whether it is possible to conceive of a work of technics that is operative at the same quasi-ontological level as différance itself. To do so, this study develops a concept of technics that is inscribed with multiplicity and heterogeneity from the very outset, while at the same time defying rigid order and origin. This leads to a deconstruction of the difference between natural and technical, and to a new conceptualization of the machine. In the wake of technics, machines emerge in an attempt to impose order, calculation and origin. The author distinguishes between three different machines: a literary machine, a metaphysical machine, and a political machine. These three machines constantly interrelate, but while the metaphysical machine plays a decisive role in structuring the interrelation between these three machines, the literary machine plays a decisive role in deconstructing the interrelations.LEI Universiteit LeidenOnderzoeksinstituut PallasModern and Contemporary Studie