The Femininity of Truth in Derrida’s Spurs

Abstract

In his work Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles, Derrida puts into words an interpretation that provides a clue to the course of the discussion on the basic problem—namely, “what truth is” —that comes to the fore in Nietzsche’s text. In Spurs, he discusses the relation of truth to both the rational and emotional contexts, using the female image as the best example. The meanings and connotations he attributes to the female image—such as variability, unattainability, distance from authenticity, the inability to reach what should be, and the difficulty of defining a concrete truth—reflect the challenge of describing the impossibility of a constant form of truth within both technical discourse and intellectual-philosophical language. Truth cannot be attained through logical analysis alone, nor can it be attained wholly within the emotional context. Since the history of thought accepts the opposition and irreplaceability of reason and emotion, and bases the power of thought on this, the impossibility of reducing a situation containing two essentially opposing structures to a single definition and foundation determines the essence of the discussion. In that case, what do the multiple connotations and meanings of truth—discussed up to Nietzsche’s lifetime—correspond to in his female image? The possibility of this, whether in its literary, artistic, religious, or rational equivalents, will also refer to pluralistic connotations in Derrida’s analysis. This study argues that a single form cannot be fixed in terms of either language or art, and discusses Nietzsche’s “femininity of truth.”