Abstract:
The article will bring a reading of Agamben’s interpretation of horkos [oath] in the Sacrament
of language, a reading of Derrida’s faith as the grammar of language, into conversation with
Lacan’s interpretation of Poe’s ‘The purloined letter’ by taking into consideration the context
of this reading: South Africa. South Africa is a multilingual context in the fullest sense of the
word ‘multilingual’, and as such, it is faced with the dilemma of a corrupt postal system.
The postal system is a metaphor for the system of communication where messages are sent
and received. This postal system is corrupt as the sender and receiver of messages are not
sacramentally bound by the same oath, and therefore the letters are doomed to be purloined.
Derrida’s différance and the grammar of faith transcends the various languages and the various
oaths as the quasi-transcendental condition for the sacrament of language, thereby opening a
sacred space to encounter the inevitable corruption of the postal service.
