Singularising the Ornamental: Death between the Repeatable and the Singular in Deleuze and Derrida

The article analyses the practice of singularisation in the face of an ‘ornamental understanding of death’, taking cues from Deleuze's and Derrida's understanding of death and mourning. The ornamental understanding of death, on which we often fall back in the face of events such as wars or pandemics, privileges statistical generalisations and a focus on repeatability over singularity. Sustained by both Freud and Heidegger, this view is countered by Deleuze's and Derrida's texts, which are shown to propose a practice of singularisation which focus on the impersonal and non-subjective to pave a way for a new understanding of death and mourning.