The Gift of Silence.

Literature and (Ir)responsibility in Jacques Derrida

Abstract

This article aims to explore the constitutive irresponsibility of literature in Jacques Derrida’s thought from the perspective of his analysis of the exis-tential possibility of Schuldigsein in Martin Heidegger’s fundamental on-tology. Drawing on the reading he undertakes in the 1978-1979 seminar delivered at the ENS entitled “Donner – le temps”, we seek to show how Derrida develops a form of silence prior to the call of conscience, a si-lence that opens, through literature, the space of ethical responsibility.