Derrida, Hesiod, Fathers, and Sons

Derrida, Hesiod, Fathers, and Sons September 24, 2003

Back to thinking about Derrida, Hesiod, fathers, and sons. If the origin of speech is, as Derrida says, the “father” of the discourse, then the opposing myths of father-son (i.e., Hesiod and the gospel) are also opposing theories of signification and language. Derrida is of Hesiod’s tribe, who believes that the son murders the father, indeed is fated to. But there is an alternative father-son myth, an alternative theory of signification: That the Son reveals the Father fully, because He is in the Father and the Father in Him, so that even in the Son’s “departure” from the Father He is not orphaned; that the Son glorifies the Father rather than killing Him; that the Son clarifies the Father, and that the second “son,” the Spirit, clarifies yet further.


Browse Our Archives

Follow Us!