Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

205The signified concept is never present in and of itself, in a sufficient presence that wouldrefer only to itself. Essentially and lawfully, every concept is inscribed in a chain or in asystem within which it refers to the other, to other concepts, by means of the systematicplay of differences. Such a play, différance, is thus no longer simply a concept, but ratherthe possibility of conceptuality, of a conceptual process and system in general. For thesame reason, différance, which not a concept, is not simply a word, that is, what isgenerally represented as the calm, present, and self-referential unity of concept andphonic material. (11)However, the infinite play of différance is “spacing”, and the becoming-time of space or thebecoming-space of time is “temporization.” Such movement is a conjunction of infinitesupplements in a structure without center, without present, in which the supplements refer only tothemselves in spatial and temporal terms. According to this logic, the written signsecond to thespoken signis derived from a missing origin, an origin that keeps sliding in the text, endlesslysliding toward death. The Derridean theory of signification animates Melville’s text.Full of Derridean signs, Moby-Dick undergoes the same movement of difference anddifférance by postponing the real narrative beginninga deferral that keeps the reader’s desire toknow blazing. The first chapter does not actually start the narrative; it plays with signs and loomsover the reader and summons him to the world of différance. In the “Cetology” chapter, thenarrator, after many narrative digressions, reminds and assures the reader that this is thebeginning of the story: “already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lostin its unshored, harborless immensities… at the outset it is but well to attend to a matter almostindispensable to a thorough appreciative understanding of the more special leviathantic