The Problematic of the Gift: From Derrida to Sartre

Ferdi Memeli, Purdue University

Abstract

The dissertation is a reading of the problematic of the gift from the work of Derrida to that of Sartre. Therefore, the dissertation contains a twofold thesis: first, that the problematic of the gift operates as the organizing principle of Derrida's writing, but as a principle that cannot be brought under the unity of a thematic positing, and that confers to Derrida's writing its very intrinsic de-centered character, its dissemination. As such, the problematic of the gift is not only one that is made evident through the explicit reflection of Derrida on the gift in his Donner le temps, and Donner la mort. The problematic of the gift is at work from the very beginning of Derrida's work, in an essential relation to those other more recognizable Derridean concepts such as writing, différance, simulacra and the quarter. The second fold of my thesis is that the problematic of the gift plays as much of an important role in Sartre's work as in that of Derrida, and that, also, from the very beginning of Sartre's work. The question that constantly preoccupies Sartre's thought in its very beginning, and that surfaces constantly in his artistic creation is that of the relationship between the consciousness and the "given". Phenomenology, through its reduction of the "given", sets itself the goal to reach the essence, the "original self-giving consciousness". This self-affection of the self-giving consciousness that gives itself the sense or the presence of the "given" introduces a space of repetition and of redoubling in the absolute presence to oneself, in the unity of the center or of the origin. Self-donation does not designate here the simple presence, as presence of the object of intuition to perception, but rather the appearance of what cannot exist otherwise than in the self-reflection of appearing to itself. Self-donation is the relationship of consciousness to the world, on the ground of an irreducible alterity, as creation, as a gift. In both, the work of Derrida and that of Sartre, the problematic of the gift plays respectively the role of a differential "concept" and that of a de-totalizing one. As such, the gift is as essential to the Derridean critique of the values of sense and presence as it is to Sartre's critique of a reifying understanding of consciousness and of time, and to his fundamental understanding of freedom as creation. The problematic of the gift plays an equally important role in both the work of Derrida and that of Sartre, because, although from entirely different perspectives, philosophical preoccupations and styles of writing, both works are essentially concerned with a redefinition of the problematic of alterity that is brought forth on the European stage of thought first by Nietzsche, Freud and Heidegger. In this perspective, the dissertation tries to put the reading of the problematic of the gift in the work of Derrida and that of Sartre in relation to the signatures of Nietzsche, Freud and Heidegger, and more broadly, in relation to its historical importance. From this historical ground, as a question of metaphysics and of the epoch of the technological dominion of the world by man, epoch whose other name is metaphysics, the problematic of the gift offers its interpretational power to an economical-political reading of European history. It is here that the more properly revolutionary power of the gift appears, as a question not only of ethics and economy, but also just as essentially of the imaginary. In expounding this threefold relationship of the question of the gift, the underlying link of the progress of our analysis would be that between the Derridean figure of the trace and Sartre's problematic of the image-sign. This link brings these two otherwise so profoundly different thinkers back to, not only their Cartesian provenance, but also on the stage of the tragic theatre. We take care to show here the more specifically artistic side of these two thinkers, a side that is constituted in the theatrical dimension of their texts, but also to recall to a potential contained in both of their works, a potential that along with the theatrical scene seems to be more and more foreclosed in our epoch. It is the potential of their works to call us to revolt.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

McBride, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Romance literature|Philosophy

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