This document provides an overview of Jacques Derrida's concept of "differance". It defines differance as a pun on "difference" and "deferment", referring to the endless deferral of meaning in language due to words referring to other words. Differance is neither positive nor negative, but is the force that enables differentiation and postponing in sign systems. The document traces the concept back to Derrida's 1963 work and discusses how it challenges the relationship between signifiers and signifieds. It provides examples of how meanings can shift through an associative chain of words.

1. Derrid’s DifferAnce theory
Name :- Kishan Jadav
Semester :- 3
Class :- M.A Part 2
Paper-204 : Criticism
RollNo :-10
Email Id :- jadavkishan55555@gmail.com
Submitted :- SMT S.B.Gardi Department of English
MKBU

2. About Author
Jacques Derrida, (born July 15, 1930,
El Biar, Algeria—died October 8,
2004, Paris, France), French
philosopher whose critique of
Western philosophy and analyses of
the nature of language, writing, and
meaning were highly controversial yet
immensely influential in much of the
intellectual world in the late 20th
century.

3. His Work :
Speech and Phenomena (1967) to be his
most important work.
Grammatology (1967)
Writing and Difference (1967)
Margins of Philosophy (1972)
Notable ideas: Deconstruction;
différance; phallogocentrism; free play;

4. What is DifferAnce ?
French term.
coined by Jacques Derrida
French word différer means both "to defer"
and "to differ.”
1963 paper "Cogito et histoire de la folie".
the senses via sound,

5. Definition of DeferAnce
The endless deferral of any ultimate meaning in a word or sentence,
owing to the necessity of recourse to a potentially infinite series of
other, equally uncertain words or signs.
a pun on “difference” and “deferment”
that attribute of language.
a signifying system.
that attribute of language
free play of meanings, one signifier leads to a signified,

6. What is Signifier and Signified
Ferdinand de Saussure as the
father of semiotics. In his lectures
to his students at University of
Geneva between 1906 to 1911,
Ferdinand de Saussure theorized
that signs are (1) a signifier (i.e., a
word or symbol) and (2) a signified
(i.e., an underlying meaning
associated with the signifier.

7. Sign = Signifier -signified
Nothing is fixed

8. Derrida concept of DeferAnce
One word leads to another word and word leads to yet
another... and finally we never come out of the dictionary.
Meaning is always postponed
House 🏠
My House , dog House, White house
Lion,🐅 >Powerful >King(Soldier, Prime minister)
>Crown >Nation

9. Countie….
You can never pronounce (speak) it differently. You can only
spell (write) it differently
Differene is not an idea or a concept but a force which makes
differentiation possible, which makes postponing possibie.
It is both negative and positive. At the same time, differAnce is
neither positive nor negative
Differene is not an idea or a concept but a force which makes
differentiation possible, which makes postponing possibie

10. Work Citation
Ellis, Jessica, et al. “What Is Differance? .” What Is
Differance? (with Picture), https://www.wise-geek.com/what-
is-differance.htm.
Willette, Jeanne. “Jacques Derrida and ‘Différance.’” Art
History Unstuffed, https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/jacques-
derrida-differance/.