104 Jackie 1930–1962
one letter from Louis Althusser and another from Jean Hyppolite.
Althusser was really happy to forward ‘a piece of news full of hopeful
signs’: after months of tricky negotiations, Hyppolite had put
forward Derrida’s name for the post of maître assistant in general
philosophy that was to be created at the Sorbonne. The assembly of
professors had fi nally agreed. Everything now depended on Étienne
Souriau, the director of studies in philosophy, and on the minis-
ter himself. Even though he claimed to be optimistic, Hyppolite
advised Derrida to carry on looking for jobs in secondary educa-
tion until the new post had been confi rmed, so as to be ready for
all eventualities.^24 But things made good progress: less than a week
later, Souriau offi cially proposed that Derrida take up a job at the
Sorbonne as ‘head of the travaux pratiques for the agrégation’: ‘Do
you want this post? If so, it’s settled.’ Derrida quickly accepted, just
before setting off for Normandy and the chateau of Cerisy-la-Salle.
His participation in the décade on ‘Genesis and structure’ came just
at the right time; it would enable him to renew his links with a world
which, by force of circumstance, he had almost completely lost sight
of over the past three years.
The ‘Talks’, held from 25 July to 3 August 1959, were in the
end directed by a trio comprising Maurice de Gandillac, Lucien
Goldmann, and Jean Piaget. Several fi gures active in contem-
porary intellectual debate took part, including Ernst Bloch and
Jean-Toussaint Desanti, as well as some ‘young bloods’, such as
Jean-Pierre Vernant and Jean-Paul Aron. Derrida would remember
this décade, the fi rst in a long series, very vividly:
I drove a little 2CV and, over the following days, I took some
famous people out to Normandy meals where the white wine
fl owed. They included Jean Piaget, Desanti, old Breton (the
latter two became great friends) as well as the Hungarian
psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Török* – it was
the fi rst time that I had met them here, too: they were striking
out on their own path between psychoanalysis and phenom-
enology. The presence of Ernst Bloch, whose work I did not
yet know, was in many respects the ‘crossing of a frontier’,
all the more signifi cant in the Europe of those days when the
discussions were full of references to Marx, with Goldmann’s
presence aiding the process.^26The title ‘Genesis and structure’, echoing Jean Hyppolite’s book
Genesis and Structure of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, was here
used as such, without any complement of object. The papers and
- She was often known professionally as Maria Torok. – Tr.