Puisse

Book section : Chapter

This little word that captures Derrida’s attention in H. C. pour la vie, that captivates him, that stops him in his tracks, that makes his heart skip a beat to the rhythm of the heart of the other might also mark the most decisive, if subtle, difference between them. It is not by accident that I use the word “decisive.” The stakes are high—in question is nothing less than the philosophy of possibility and impossibility, a central pivot on which art, politics, and life in all its forms turn. This puisse might just mark the moment, for Derrida, when Cixous arrives, when her thought happens to him like what in Politiques de l’amitié, he calls a “passive decision,” which, for him, means, “the decision of the other.” Of the absolute other in me, the other as the absolute that decides on me in me.” But how does he respond? Is Derridean deconstruction rendered powerless in the face of her toute-Puissance Autre of literature? Does he abandon himself to her mighty thought of puisse? Does he accept it?...

Authors: Waltham-Smith, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Host title: Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism
• Pages: 223-227
• Chapter number: 23
• Series number: Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism
• Place of publication: New York
• Publication date: 2025-12-17
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.5040/9798765132050.0031
• ISSN: 2637-9031
• EISBN: 9798765132029
• ISBN: 9798765132036
• Language: English
• Keywords: impossibility; power; Derrida; event; calculation; grace
• Subtype: Chapter