Abstract
When a language refers to itself and because of this becomes transparent in relation to its background, a veil appears. Veiled, words develop an independent existence.01 They are no longer accessible to a certain kind of meta-language; the one which does not play to their resistance to meaning. Insofar as working with language is no longer confined to the construction of meaning, words become borderline cases of opacity. As such they are connected to the memory of other time layers to which they had once already belonged. Newly interwoven they dissolve this memory through a kind of mental exertion that moves between memory and language, blends, blurs, and at some places lets them become translucent.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
See Derrida’s reference to Benjamin, in: Jacques Derrida, Voiles, Paris: Galilée, 1998, 81.
“Blur House,” Diller/Scofidio, Yverdon-le-Bain, Expo 2002.
Benjamin, Walter, Gesammelte Schriften, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, volume II.2, 437. In addition see the essay by Werner Hamacher, “Das Wort Wolke,” in: Entferntes Verstehen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1998, 285.
Jacques Derrida, Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money, Chicago: The University Press of Chicago, 1992, 29.
“Space house,” in: Friedrich Kiesler: Artiste-architecte, Paris: Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 1996, 67. Kitchen, bathroom and garage are not flexible in a flowing space, remarked Kiesler.
Kiesler, ibid., 69.
Jean Starobinski, The Living Eye, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, 1.
Marguerite Duras, Destroy, She Said, translated by Barbara Bray, New York: Grove, 1970, 6 (translation modified).
Marguerite Duras, The Lover, translated by Barbara Bray, London: Collins, 1985, 50 and 45.
Kiesler, op.cit., 78. In Arabic, the word for veil and curtain is “hijâb.” Among other things, it means “to deprive of the view,” “to draft a border.” A room behind a “hijâb” is a forbidden room. (Fatema Mernissi, cit. after Heide Volkening, “Den Schleier schreiben” (1999), in: www.culture.hu-berlin.de/verstarker/vs004 [18 May 2009].
Virginia Woolf, The Waves, London: L. & V. Woolf, 1931, 253.
Benjamin, op.cit., volume IV.1, 261.
Francis Ponge, Die literarische Praxis, Olten: Walter, 1964, 14.
“Not in a hurry. Yes, I’m against, yes, yes, I am. Against those who prescribe the veil and other such things, against those who forbid it too, and who think they can forbid it, imagining that this is good; that it is possible and that it is meaningful.” (Jacques Derrida, cit. in: Volkening, op. cit.)
Jacques Derrida, Spurs: Nietzsches’s Styles [...], Venezia: Corbo e Fiori, 1976.
Abdelwahab Meddeb, Die Krankheit des Islam, Heidelberg: Wunderhorn, 2002, 52.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Felka, R. (2009). Between Word and Space. In: Meyer, E., Liska, V. (eds) What does the Veil know?. Edition Voldemeer. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99290-6_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99290-6_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-99289-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-211-99290-6