ISBN 13: 978-0-920897-68-3
192 pages, paperback
Fall 1989

Non-Fiction | Writer as Critic

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about this book 

Signature Event Cantext is a collection of essays on Canadian writing, mostly contemporary, by such authors as Leonard Cohen, Phyllis Webb, and bpNichol. These authors are set within the context of the critical theory of Jaques Derrida, so the book also functions as an explosition of certain key terms in Derrida’s vocabulary: supplement, parergon, signature. These two elements are given equal weight: the Canadian authors are not there simply to serve as examples for Derrida’s theories, nor is Derrida merely a tool to explain the literature. Rather, the practical and theoretical aspects of the book work together, to reinforce each other, and thus to make an argument for the creative use of theory in contemporary criticism.