Sous rature

Sous rature is a strategic philosophical device originally developed by Martin Heidegger. Though never used in its contemporary French terminology by Heidegger, it is usually translated as 'under erasure', and involves the crossing out of a word within a text, but allowing it to remain legible and in place. Used extensively by Jacques Derrida, it signifies that a word is "inadequate yet necessary";^[1] that a particular signifier is not wholly suitable for the concept it represents, but must be used as the constraints of our language offer nothing better.

In the philosophy of deconstruction, sous rature has been described as the typographical expression that seeks to identify sites within texts where key terms and concepts may be paradoxical or self-undermining, rendering their meaning undecidable.^[2]^[3] To extend this notion, deconstruction and the practice of sous rature also seek to demonstrate that meaning is derived from difference, not by reference to a pre-existing notion or freestanding idea.^[4]

^ Madan Sarup, An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism p. 33.
^ Taylor, V.E. & Winquist, C.E. 2001, Encyclopaedia of Postmodernism, Taylor & Francis, London, p. 113
^ Belsey C 2001, Critical Practice 2nd ed., Routledge, London, p116
^ Belsey, p. 116

[1] Madan Sarup, An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism p. 33.

[2] Taylor, V.E. & Winquist, C.E. 2001, Encyclopaedia of Postmodernism, Taylor & Francis, London, p. 113

[3] Belsey C 2001, Critical Practice 2nd ed., Routledge, London, p116

[4] Belsey, p. 116

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