Differance, I Will Not Limit You

After consulting several sources, I have arrived upon an understanding of Jacques Derrida's "Differance." I'm not all that confident about my understanding, and I would hate to confine the term by attaching a heavy definition to it. But I want to collect some of my ideas about it, so here it goes.

So Derrida begins his argument by presenting a term. Differance. Not to be confused with the word difference, which, going along with Derrida's logic, should be associated with different connotations than differance should. But how to define differance? How can you define something that cannot be confined to any rules. As Derrida says, "Differance is neither a word nor a concept." (Derrida 279) So what is it?

Rather than focus on a definition, I will attempt instead to produce what I'm going to call a string of thoughts. One point Derrida makes about differance is this: every meaning for every word comes with several connotations. That is, a word does not exist independently of other words and meanings. It is composed of other words that mean other things that are associated with other things. Another interesting point is that a word (or even language as a whole) is also altered by time. Derrida says, "Retaining at least the schema, if not the content, of the demand formulated by Saussure, we shall designate by the term differance the movement by which language, or any code, any system of reference in general, becomes "historically" constituted as a fabric of differences." (Derrida 286) I take this to mean that as language, or words, move through time and space, they are altered by time and other words and concepts. They are always changing.

One last point before this blog becomes a novel. Derrida says, "Differences are thus "produced"-- differed-- by differance. But what differs, or who differs? In other words, what is differance?" (Derrida 288) The reason I bring up this last quote is because I think that part of the answer to these questions can be found by examining the questions themselves. Is it something that can be done? Can people do differance? Perhaps, as Derrida said, differance is free from form to an extent. It cannot be classified necessarily. But it sure can resonate. When I finished reading Derrida, I wondered what differance really means. And my understanding is this: I think that differance is a label for all the things that make words and language what they are. Connotations, words, definitions, history, change, and a million other factors define the undefinable and complicated term: Differance.