Politiques derridiennes de l’adresse

The aim of this article is to describe the ‘political thought of address’ that Derrida develops in Politiques de l’amitié, drawing on work from the 1960s. To do so, it examines the role in Politiques de l’amitié of the propositions formulated in ‘Signature événement contexte’, in particular the re-reading of the performative. The aim is both to shed light on Derrida’s proposal on political community in Politiques de l’amitié, and to understand the political significance of the proposals formulated in the 1960s and 1970s. We will then be able to show how an original Derridan political philosophy develops, not only in the later, explicitly political works, but also from the work articulated around questions of writing. These issues arise in particular in the not entirely explicit dialogue between Derrida and Habermas, on which this article also sheds light. In this way, we will be able to show how Derridan thought can help to shed light on contemporary discussions of language in politics, particularly through questions of speaking and deliberation.