The Territories of Deconstruction 1984–1986 373
circumstances. As he later related in his short book Passer à l’acte, it
was during a long sojourn in prison near Toulouse that he embarked
on studies in linguistics and then philosophy with the support of
Gérard Granel. ‘Those fi ve years’ incarceration were the best thing
that happened to me,’ he says.
Since time was the only thing I had, I was able to read a
few great philosophical oeuvres in a methodical way: Plato,
Aristotle, Heidegger, but Derrida too. Of Grammatology
struck me as a super-human text. After a while, I was so
enthusiastic about Derrida that Granel encouraged me to
write to him. I took a while to make my mind up, as ever
since I’d been in prison, I’d chosen to adopt what I felt was a
salutary attitude: expect nothing from outside. So I was very
afraid that he wouldn’t reply and that this would bug me. In
fact, he replied straightaway and in very generous terms. We
met for the fi rst time in Paris in October 1982, during one of
my periods of parole. In spite of all his eff orts to put me at my
ease, I was paralysed by my feelings, stupefi ed to fi nd myself
face to face with the author of a text that had had such an
impact on me.^51During his last months in detention, Stiegler sent Derrida the
text on Plato that he was writing and which formed the basis of his
maîtrise dissertation. Derrida was immediately impressed by the
quality of the work. In his letters, Stiegler added personal remarks
that were bound to touch Derrida, so soon after his own brief incar-
ceration in Prague. In particular, he said that he was even more
apprehensive about his fi nal release than he desired it: ‘At present,
I’ve just got to the heart of my work, where I feel almost at ease, and
this liberation will, I fear, wreck all my eff orts to put myself at the
disposal of texts as much as possible – and in this respect, prison is a
very virtuous place.’^52
After Stiegler’s release at the beginning of 1983, Derrida con-
tinued to follow his philosophical work. But, to the amazement of
the man who admired him as an inaccessible master, the author of
Of Grammatology took an equal interest in his professional future,
helping him as much as possible to fi t into society. In 1984, Stiegler
was appointed for six years as director of the research programme
at the Collège International de Philosophie. In 1986, he registered
to write a thesis under Derrida’s supervision at the same time as
his then partner, Catherine Malabou, an alumna of the École
Normale Supérieure at Fontenay-Saint-Cloud and an agrégée in
philosophy.
Since being appointed to a post at the École des Hautes Études,
Derrida had been in a position to supervise theses, a task which