Callaghan, Joanna (2019) Materialising the other: pregnancy & deconstruction. Studies in the Maternal, 11 (1). p. 3. ISSN 1759-0434

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Abstract

In the ‘Envois’ section of Jacques Derrida’s The Post Card (1980), pregnancy and ‘the child’ keep coming back. As early as page five, there is an allusion to a child of sorts; ‘To the devil with the child, the only thing we ever will have discussed, the child, the child, the child’ (1980: 25). This unborn child is central to the emotional drama of the ‘Envois’. It is cause and consequence of the correspondence between the unnamed narrator and his pregnant lover. Nevertheless the topic of pregnancy in ‘Envois’ has been relatively ignored by Derrida scholars. In 2014, I produced a feature film inspired from The Post Card and chose to emphasise the aspect of pregnancy. I included a five-year-old child, Byron, whose genealogy remains open. I also featured a number of characters who are or want to be pregnant. In this video essay, I discuss how Love in the Post: From Plato to Derrida reads Derrida’s ‘Envois’ in relation to pregnancy, reproduction and infidelity.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Deconstruction, film, Love in the Post, Derrida, pregnancy, practice research, practice-based research, filmmaking research
Schools and Departments:	School of Media, Film and Music > Media and Film
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) > B2430.D48 Derrida, Jacques
Related URLs:	Author
Depositing User:	Joanna Callaghan
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2019 08:39
Last Modified:	04 May 2021 13:58
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/88905

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