Circling the void : Derrida's style of counting

Abstract

The present work attempts to imagine a point at which expressive style and ontological style are indistinguishable. While expressive style refers to the manner in which an entity is presented, or presents itself, ontological style refers to the manner in which an entity exists, persisting – however contingently – in space and time. This point of convergence is central to the polemical force of Derrida's Spurs, which, as with much of Derrida's writing, investigates style both thematically and performatively. The coordinates of style – expression and existence, presentation and persistence – identify one of the principal ways in which singular entities come to exemplify universal propositions. Here, where it is possible ‘to remain at once and for all, open […] and undecipherable’, style proves the pivot upon which expression and being are demonstrably coextensive.

It is in this sense that it is possible to recognize the resonance of the familiar claim – for some, it is scandalous – that style is substance.