Abstract

If electronic word searching can be relied upon, then the problematic of signature does not arise in Derrida's corpus until after its initial three‐part salvo, Voice and Phenomena, Writing and Difference, and Of Grammatology, all published in 1967. The repetition bears what Derrida will later, in Glas, call his siglum, his abbreviation or acronym, the semanticization of his initials, D.Ja., which shows up in the common adverb déjà, “already.” Countersignature is a response to the other's writing, the other's signing. Which is to say another name for it is reading, but one that figures an act of responsible response, signed and countersigned. To conclude, this chapter considers a text from 1998 that sustains a reflection on the history of, if not Derrida's signature, then an invention signed by Derrida. That invention is Derrida's translation of Hegelian Aufhebung as relève.