The Time of a Gift

Abstract

The writer considers Derrida's understanding of the gift. Looking at Derrida's Given Time, he shows that, in his desire to keep the gift in “a relation of foreignness to the circle,” Derrida comes to “situate” it in “a no-time-lapse” “at the zero or infinite speed of the circle.” He maintains that, in doing so, the theorist of différance performs a strategic “forgetting” of the differantial spacing entailed in the movement of giving, the spatio-temporal écart that defers the return of the gift, ensuring that on its return the given will be altered.