TY - JOUR

T1 - 'Disastrologies'

AU - Schad, Stephen John

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Derrida Today. The Version of Record is available online at: http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/drt.2017.0155

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - ‘Disastrologies’ explores Derrida’s fascination with dates and how that fascination reveals a secret correspondence, in every sense of the word, with Walter Benjamin – a man who has the same birth-date as Derrida. It is, though, the date of Benjamin’s death and indeed its infamous mise-en-scene, the cheap hotel on the Franco-Spanish border, that dominates this text which takes the form of a dramatic monologue delivered by the hotel manager, Juan Suner, a man known to be both a manipulator of dates and, indeed, close to the Gestapo. As the monologue unfolds, Suner advances an elaborate calendrical re-reading of a host of Derrida texts which probes at the mystery not only of Benjamin’s last night but also of living with both Jewish and Christian calendars. Finally, we see how this last of nights puts under unbearable pressure the infinite promise of both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday.

AB - ‘Disastrologies’ explores Derrida’s fascination with dates and how that fascination reveals a secret correspondence, in every sense of the word, with Walter Benjamin – a man who has the same birth-date as Derrida. It is, though, the date of Benjamin’s death and indeed its infamous mise-en-scene, the cheap hotel on the Franco-Spanish border, that dominates this text which takes the form of a dramatic monologue delivered by the hotel manager, Juan Suner, a man known to be both a manipulator of dates and, indeed, close to the Gestapo. As the monologue unfolds, Suner advances an elaborate calendrical re-reading of a host of Derrida texts which probes at the mystery not only of Benjamin’s last night but also of living with both Jewish and Christian calendars. Finally, we see how this last of nights puts under unbearable pressure the infinite promise of both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday.

KW - Walter Benjamin

KW - Dates

KW - October

KW - November

KW - Hotel

KW - Sabbath

KW - Friday

KW - Sunday

U2 - 10.3366/drt.2017.0155

DO - 10.3366/drt.2017.0155

M3 - Journal article

VL - 10

SP - 180

EP - 196

JO - Derrida Today

JF - Derrida Today

SN - 1754-8500

IS - 2

ER -