Page "Jacques Derrida" Paragraph 129

Christopher Wise in his book Derrida, Africa, and the Middle East ( 2009 ) places Derrida's work in the historical context of his North African origins, an argument first briefly made by Robert J. C. Young in White Mythologies: Writing History and the West ( 1990 ) and extended in his Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction ( 2001 ) where Young surveys the writings of numerous theorists and situates the whole framework of Derrida's thinking in relation to the impact of growing up in the colonial conditions of French Algeria.

In contrast, Wise compares Derrida's thought to precolonial notions of the word that are rooted in ancient Egyptian and African society.

Wise argues that Derridean concept of spirit / specter as occult pharmakon is indebted not only to the Hebraic notion of ruah but also the Egyptian heka, Soninke naxamala, Mande nyama, and many other comparable Egypto-African concepts of the word, some that are historically prior to the Hebraic ruah.

Wise suggests that Derrida deliberately elides related African concepts of the word in order to accord Judaism a place of special prominence within the history of European philosophy.

He argues instead that European philosophy must acknowledge its historical indebtedness to Middle Eastern and African thought, which is not limited to the influence of Judaism alone.