Thursday, December 15, 2005
(10:50 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
At Marx's House
In French, the preposition chez can mean, among other things, "at a person's house" and "in a person's work" -- so if, say, Engels were to say a sentence in French starting with Chez Marx..., he could potentially be saying something roughly equivalent to when we English-speaking academics say, "For Marx, [some particular thing is true about the world]," or else wanting to tell someone about this really comfortable chair at Marx's house.I find this overlap amusing for some reason, and I think it's actually appropriate. To combine both meanings, we might end up saying, "If you're ever over at Marx's place and really make yourself at home, this is how the world will seem to be." It's similar to Zizek's use of "Lacanese" or "Hegelese" -- as though these thinkers' ways of thinking and speaking were the official language of a foreign country, which in a certain sense, they are. The locative meaning is also fitting for Derrida, who might be something of a presumptuous guest in the various philosophers' houses, rooting through their medicine cabinets and underwear drawers.
