Derrida's "differance" defies definition in the traditional sense. Neither an idea nor an object, "differance" instead gives us a word to describe an action that is constantly in action, and that we cannot see in action, much like the Freudian idea of the unconscious mind. Differance, to use the linguistic example Derrida chooses, consists of the action of the "system of differences," according to Derrida, that "dictates all relations between usage and the formal schema," and "forbids the essential dissociation between speech and writing" (941). To Derrida, no solid center exists; unlike Saussure or Levi-Strauss, who believe in a central, unifying truth value made apparent by the interactions of a binary (Saussure's "sign" out of signifier and signified, to provide the linguistic example), Derrida simply sees interplay between forces which is not a force or truth value in and of itself. "What results" from the interplay he observes, is instead "a cipher without truth, or at least a system of ciphers that is not dominated by truth value, which only then becomes a function that is understood, inscribed, and circumscribed" (943). However, when proceeding by such aporia, Derrida loses many of his reader's to a common misconception: that, because no truth value unifies the interplay, no resolution can come about. In reality, differance seems to work more like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle; if one traces the motion of the freeplay, then he can approximate what a structuralist critic might loosely call a center. Rather than revealing a universal, objective truth, though, differance's "center" dictates a subjective, contextual meaning. The disjunct, then, which causes many readers to abandon Derridean thought as a slippery slope, occurs when the reader links truth and meaning together, when really no indication of that link appears. Contextual meaning is, defined concisely, a subjective truth: the trace of truth. To trace differance is not to "track down some thing," but to "track down tracks" (948).

Oh, yeah, the paper's also on Derrida. Should probably tell you that, since Dickinson doesn't appear at all here...