Analyzing the Language of Poetry

Paper Summary:

Analysis of how Thomas Hardy's poem, "I Look into My Glass," illustrates Jacques Derrida's belief that it is a function of language that words and concepts do not have a perfect 1-to-1 relationship.

From the Paper:

"Jacques Derrida's "The Exorbitant. Question of Method" from "Of Grammatology" articulates the concept of the supplement out of the writing of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Derrida views the usage of the word "supplement" as having both negative and positive meanings in Rousseau's work. The multiple meanings present in Rousseau's text are used to explain the ambiguity of written words. Ambiguity is not seen as writing's problem but rather its function. Derrida then goes on to enunciate how this function is both problematic and necessary. His characterization goes quite strongly against the idea of logos, that ideal of unity between thought and expression that is thought to be available in the presence of speech. Thomas Hardy's poem "I Look Into My Glass" can be used to display the necessary ambiguity of the absent language of writing, and how the interpretative dance is problematized because through textual interaction with the world meaning is endlessly deferred."

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