114 Jackie 1930–1962
philosophy and logic’, free to organize my classes and my semi-
nars however I wished, and working only in the most abstract
sense under all the professors whose assistant I offi cially was:
Suzanne Bachelard, Canguilhem, Poirier, Polin, Ricoeur, and
Wahl. I rarely saw them apart from at exams except, perhaps,
towards the end, Suzanne Bachelard and Canguilhem, who was
also a paternal and admired friend to me.^5As there was no syllabus in general philosophy, Derrida was at
liberty to choose his subjects. He gave entire lecture courses on
Heidegger’s Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics and ‘What is
metaphysics?’, but he also discussed themes such as ‘Irony, doubt
and the question’, ‘The present (Heidegger, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel,
Bergson)’, and ‘Thinking means saying no’, and he gave a com-
mentary on Claudel’s formula, ‘Evil is in the world like a slave
who brings up water from the well’. His reputation soon grew, and
people crowded into his lectures. In the Cavaillès lecture hall, over a
hundred and fi fty students piled in, and those who had not taken the
precaution of turning up half an hour early had to remain standing.
After a few months, Derrida was forced to divide the students into
two groups and to repeat the sessions of travaux dirigés.*
In spite of the diffi cult material conditions, typical of the way the
Sorbonne worked at the time, many students would vividly remem-
ber Derrida’s lectures from those years. Françoise Dastur recalls a
profound philosopher, albeit one who was still very traditional in
his manners.
He seemed shy and even somewhat clumsy. He read out
extremely dense lectures, several of which were quite magnifi -
cent. I particularly remember ‘Method and metaphysics’ and
‘Theology and teleology in Husserl’. It was Derrida, together
with Ricoeur, who initiated me into the phenomenology of
Husserl and the thought of Heidegger. However, though he
sometimes referred to Sartre, he never mentioned Merleau-
Ponty. He demanded a great deal from his students, but gave
them a great deal in return, and was happy to spend a few
minutes answering questions at the end of each lecture.^6Jean Ristat, who would soon become a friend of Derrida’s,
remembers a teacher who was friendly and attentive most of the
time, but who could also be merciless on occasion.
I remember him fl ying into a terrible rage during oral exams,
since several of the students he was examining hadn’t read the- Similar to seminars, with the focus on student discussion. – Tr.