A New Hand of Cards 1982–1983 349
Derrida, the principal instigator of the Collège International de
Philosophie that has just been created under the aegis of three
ministerial offi ces. And yet, this fi fty-three-year-old thinker-
writer is, in France, at once famous and unknown, respected
and ignored. Not well-liked by the universities that act as
guardians of stagnant knowledge, he is also exceptionally dis-
creet on the public stage. Jacques Derrida does not play the
game. An explorer of the margins, he causes the limits of phi-
losophy, psychoanalysis, literature to vacillate in his multiform
work. This thinker who travels willingly through the works
of others – Husserl, Kant, Freud, Nietzsche, Genet, Jabès,
Levinas, Leiris – has often been reproached for the diffi culty
of his style. While making every eff ort to keep things simple,
he explained to Catherine David what are, in his opinion, the
misunderstandings and traps that today threaten thinking.^18It was in this interview that Derrida agreed for the fi rst time
to provide some autobiographical information, and talk about
Algeria, anti-Semitism, his formative years, and the Prague aff air.
His attitude towards the media was starting to change. Whatever
his reluctance, he now knew that he could not do without them. In
April 1981, the monthly Lire launched a wide-scale survey aimed at
identifying the most infl uential French intellectuals. Claude Lévi-
Strauss came top, followed by Raymond Aron, Michel Foucault,
Jacques Lacan, and Simone de Beauvoir. Bernard-Henri Lévy came
ninth. Derrida’s name appeared nowhere in this list of thirty-six
celebrities; even though, at this time, his work was not aimed at the
general public, this absence must have hurt him.
Ever since the rebellion against him in autumn 1981, the situ-
ation at Normale Sup had been far from settled. The new regime
at the École had brought in more vexatious measures against the
philo sophy caïmans, imposing fresh and hitherto unknown admin-
istrative constraints. More than ever, Derrida wanted out. But this
would mean him fi nding a new job, which the Collège International
de Philosophie just could not provide him with. In August 1983, in a
letter to Rodolphe Gasché, he mentioned the possibility of moving
to the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. A post direct-
ing studies on ‘philosophical institutions’ could be created for him.
The election would take place in November. ‘And although they’re
telling me I have every chance of getting it, experience has made me
extremely cautious and mistrustful as regards anything that depends
on the académie and my dear colleagues. I will remain so until the
last moment.’^19
Even though Lucien Bianco, director of research at the Hautes
Études for several years, assured him that he need have no worry’,^20
Derrida was still apprehensive. In November, as the election