Memory as Form and as Trace: An Account of Malabou’s Rupture with Derrida in Memory Assemblages

In this text, I attempt to account for Hilton Bensusan’s reading of Catherine Malabou’s break with Jacques Derrida in the book Memory Assemblages. I begin by outlining a brief overview of Freud and the Scene of Writing, in order to establish a horizon within which Derrida’s position can be appreciated and contrasted with Malabou’s. To present Malabou’s position, I first move through Bensusan’s own assessment of this critique. Finally, I conclude that, by considering plasticity as a restricted version of retention, Memory Assemblages overlooks the possibility of a more fruitful dialogue with Malabou’s work, as can be glimpsed in a reading of Are There Still Traces?