Chapter 2 - Contexts

Summary

Beginnings

During the early 1950s, as Derrida began to embark on an academic career, the philosophical and literary world in France was still largely dominated by post-war existentialism and, in particular, by the imposing figure of Jean-Paul Sartre, who was still firmly established not only as one of France's leading contemporary philosophers and most prominent campaigning intellectuals, but also as a celebrated novelist, dramatist, and literary critic too. The origins of Sartre's literary and philosophical thinking were many and various. But an important turning point in his intellectual development had been the pre-war encounter in 1933–4 with German phenomenology, most notably with Husserl, whose work, alongside that of Hegel and Heidegger, continued to inform much of Sartre's post-war thinking, though he would often be accused, rightly enough, of interpreting them in idiosyncratic and not always easily defendable ways. Sartre remained however a towering figure, and it was perhaps hardly surprising that, as he sought a path of his own through the complex post-war philosophical landscape, and having encountered Heidegger and Husserl through Sartre, Derrida should first turn his attention, to markedly different effect, to these two key philosophical figures. Derrida however was also determined to strike out on his own. This he did, unfashionably for the time, by concentrating on Husserl's philosophy of science.