Deconstruction and forgiveness: The final phase of Derrida's thought

This chapter analyzes Jacques Derrida's two 1997-1998 courses on perjury and forgiveness in order to understand how he dissociates a notion of unconditionality from one of sovereignty, and thereby transforms his own idea of deconstruction. The essays highlight four ways that Derrida achieves this. The dissociation involves, first, an insight about power, and specifically the power of the impossible, which depends on the experience of the undecidable. Second, there is an insight about intonation; one must say "I forgive" with a certain tone. Third, there is an insight about memory; forgiveness requires a memory that never forgets. And, fourth, there is an insight about guilt; there are so many, unavoidable ways to be guilty when one forgives. These insights provide us with something like steps for achieving the dissociation of unconditionality from sovereignty.