Abstract

In the 500 or so pages of the tapuscript of La Bête et le souverain, Jacques Derrida explores, in a fashion that is peculiar to his writings, certain animal figures of sovereignty, especially in its tyrannical and violent manifestations, such as “The Wolf and the Lamb,” “The Deer, the Goat, and the Sheep in Society with the Lion,” and others. It is especially his manner of proceeding and the mannerisms that have become his trademark that I will address here, namely, his addiction to all sorts of wordplay, his insistent self-referential returns to his own writing, and a persistent strain of humor, which is itself exceptional in the mostly cheerless annals of philosophy. He’s having all the fun..