Archi-violence: the genesis of the violence of genesis in Derrida’s philosophy

Abstract

In this paper, I approach the concept of violence in connection with deconstruction as a condition of possibility of meaning. I track the genesis and structure of different formulations of the concept presented in the early works of Derrida (1954-1967), such as ‘original violence’, ‘transcendental violence’, and ‘archi-violence’. I present some key points on this topic emphasizing two features: 1) the overall thesis about the economy in which violence is exposed and developed, in dialogue with the ideas of Lévi-Strauss; and 2) some more detailed notes about the genesis of the concept of violence, which is adopted by Derrida in direct discussion with the phenomenological tradition, especially with Husserl and Levinas. Both subjects are also involved with certain methodological elements that I think  cannot be avoided in Derrida’s philosophy, because they are integral to deconstruction itself. This will give us a full view of the problem of the idea of a genesis of the violence of genesis.