From the Posthumous Memoirs of Humanity: “Democracy to Come”

Abstract

Taking Derrida's work as point of departure, this commentary aims to articulate the concept of the humanities with the postulation of a democracy to come. The humanities are thought through their constituent but posthumous humanism, and through their power within the university. The humanities have rewritten Humanity. Their autobiographical traces, unfindable traces of this writing, mean marks for a democracy to come. Following Derrida, this commentary asserts that no event of democracy is thinkable without the dissymmetry that comes from the humanities. Beyond Derrida, however, the productivity of fiction provides more elements for the untamed reactivation of the contemporary democratic discourse.