500 Jacques Derrida 1984–2004
publishing industry to assemble archives. Among those already
assembled (Céline, Duras, Barthes, Foucault.. .), two were of more
particular interest to Derrida: Althusser and Genet. As related by
Albert Dichy, the great Genet specialist and one of the people in
charge of the IMEC: ‘In 1991, there were some lively discussions
between Althusser’s friends about The Future Lasts a Long Time.
Several, including Étienne Balibar, thought it was not the right time
to publish it. Derrida was one of the few people to say that the text
should indeed be published. In this delicate operation, he gave us his
discreet support.’^14
At the end of October 1997, following a conference at the Société
des Gens de Lettres where they struck up a friendship, Olivier
Corpet, the director of the IMEC, probed Derrida on the possibility
of a partnership. Of course, there was no question of withdraw-
ing anything from the Langson Library in Irvine. But new items
could be entrusted to the IMEC. For scholars, the presence of
several archives linked to his work would be a considerable draw.
In Derrida’s eyes, the IMEC also had the advantage of being inde-
pendent: just like Cerisy, it was one of those ‘counter-institutions’ of
which he was fond.
Corpet and Derrida met again at Ris-Orangis, at the end of 1997,
and started to envisage in practical terms how a collaboration might
work out. A few months later, Corpet wrote to tell him that he
was fully prepared to go to Irvine to meet the people who ran the
archives. ‘A lot of things can “get sorted” on a face-to-face basis,
and the IMEC is, as you know, very happy to engage in dialogue
on the matter, since it is very anxious to establish a deep and trust-
ing cooperation.’^15 He went to Irvine the following spring, and the
partnership was in place by June 1999.
Derrida wished the originals of the letters he had received linked
to France – far and away the most numerous – to be preserved in
the IMEC, while letters linked to the United States and to other
international developments of his work would be placed in Irvine,
joining the manuscripts and documents that were already there. An
exchange of photocopies was arranged between the two institutions
to facilitate the work of scholars. So everything seemed to augur for
the best.
The contract on the deposit of private archives was signed by
Corpet and Derrida on 15 January 2002. But actually implementing
it, when the time came to send off the letters, was another matter. As
Albert Dichy remembers:
He’d open a folder, take out a letter, and tell me a bit about its
context. He had long dreamed of rereading all his letters; he
realized that he would now never do so... As the fi rst boxes
were loaded, with the oldest letters, he kept walking round the