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13 - Eyespot Like No Other (1980)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2026

Geoffrey Bennington
Affiliation:
Emory University
Kas Saghafi
Affiliation:
University of Memphis
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Summary

“Ocelle comme pas un” appeared as the preface to Jos Joliet's L’enfant au chien-assis (Paris: Galiée, 1980), 9–43.

on this day

… no longer knowing where to put oneself and I think of a law: the energy of an apostrophe is always recognized in that it provokes you where you no longer know from the start where to put yourself.

There where The Child speaks to me as no other.

There where? But then there, what does that mean? Where does this there take place— since, there where the other comes to you, there where the other joins you (you yourself by the address to yourself adjoined), there where, joined you would take place you no longer know where to put yourself? You no longer know where to put yourself because, suddenly violated by the apostrophe, on such and such a day and in this light you glimpse the secret: namely, so to speak, that you hardly know where your name comes from, who summons you, what your name is, and who is in charge of your identity: questions of birth and blood, imbroglio of filiations, when so many genetic difficulties [genes], through generations of people, gentle and otherwise, genetics and genealogy are crossbred.

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