Bakhtin and Derrida, the Possibility of Dialogue - Towards an Aesthetic of the Eye, Feeling, and Fluid Writing

Bakhtin and Derrida, the Possibility of Dialogue

  This paper invites the reader to consider whether any similarity between Bakhtin and Derrida exists at a fundamental level, and if it does, what kind of character it assumes, what interests and powers it serves, and finally, what is the common substrate underlying their technical terms before they are found in concepts. The central focus is on fluid language: more precisely, written language, the world of and in signs that bears on the eye, feeling, and impressions. A reading of hitherto less regarded ideas, such as "extra-," "cybernetics," "festival," and a pyramidal form as a significant visual metaphor, is an attempt to grasp the light these ideas shed on the internal properties, structure, form, and style of language as it is actually experienced. At all essential points, it is argued that visual impression (by extension, imprint, pictogram, and writing) is the place where individuality stands opposed to a religious belief in providential design and rises to the challenges against the socio-cultural forces that establish a certain criterion of what is normal, proper, and true. It is demonstrated how, amid this clash, a perspective opens out into a boundless field of representations.