TITLE:
Derrida and the Flesh of Metaphorical Language
AUTHORS:
Shining Star Lyngdoh
KEYWORDS:
Metaphor, Embodiedness, Writing, Body, Text, Corporeality, Materiality
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.11 No.4,
October
19,
2021
ABSTRACT: In this paper, an attempt has been made to uncover the problem of
metaphorical language in its relation to fleshliness and embodiedness as found
in the critical reading of the texts of Derrida. The fleshliness of
metaphorical language is embodied in our bodily activity in such a manner that
sensible writing in the Derridean sense and corporeal body become intertwined
notions. Metaphor and metaphorical language is a point of intersection between
the body and sensible writing. This materiality/corporeality/fleshiness of
metaphorical language can be understood as text. According to Derrida, writing
and body have been viewed by the western philosophical tradition as exterior to
speech and mind respectively, and he wants to deconstruct such hierarchical
binaries. With this, writing (as archi-écriture)
is no more a literary notion, but the generic form of symbolic practice, always
already metaphorical and embodied. This paper is centered on the oeuvre of
Derrida to uncover the thinking for the fleshliness of metaphorical language
from within the texts of western philosophical tradition.