Messianic in Spectres of Marx by Jaques Derrida Essay

In Spectres of Marx, Jaques Derrida expounds upon a major theme of his argument, the messianic, and is interested in outlining the issues surrounding messianism. These issues which work along side the critical characteristics of Marxist theory. According to Derrida, the â€Å"messianic† adopts the basic configuration of religious messianic thought, but there is also â€Å"a messianism without religion† (74). Derrida shares his opinion that a messiah is a promise, a hope, and an aspiration of something to come, but not that the messiah actually comes. If the messiah does come, and there is an end, where is the mystery once he is revealed? There lacks a definite horizon or final expectation in Derrida’s messianism. Of the many views of messianism he†¦show more content†¦Deconstruction is more of a journey to be undertaken with the understanding that there is not going to be a definite end. There is a constant change in what is being understood and once th ere is an apparent conclusion, a new door opens leading to another. In religious context, the coming of the messiah is mostly concerned with time and not Jesus. As of page twenty-five in Specters of Marx, Derrida is hoping for a day in the future, not here yet, where we would finally be removed from the fatality of vengeance, such as in the story of Hamlet and his vengeance. Hamlet is waiting and wishing for another kind of justice to arrive. In this case, the messianic has a lot to do with justice. The issue with justice is that like deconstruction, it is undeconstructable. Justice takes place in a disjointure, such as the disjointure of the present time into many moments. The â€Å"presence of the present† (28) deals with what is to come. What the â€Å"present† represents is really a constant movement without much presence. To say something has singularity is an issue. Justice only takes place in a disjointure, and thus it is as if justice can only bee experienced during a moment of the present that is contemporaneous with it. The condition of justice is within the present. The lack of the possibility of justice would result in losing the chance of experiencing the future of a â€Å"Desert-like messianism (without content and without identifiable messiah)† (33). ItShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagespostmodernism Three key thinkers of postmodernism Jacques Derrida: the linguistic turn and deconstruction J.F. Lyotard and the nature of knowledge Foucault: postmodernism, discourse, knowledge and power Organizational culture The challenges of postmodernism to organization theory Problematizing normal science Problematizing truth Problematizing representation Problematizing writing Problematizing generalizability Postmodernism and the spectre of relativism Conclusions 242 242 244 246 248 250 251