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trace

is appearance of a nearness, however far removed the thing that left it behind may be. The aura, by contrast, is appearance of a distance, however close the thing that calls it forth. In the trace, we gain possession of the thing... in the aura, it takes possession of us.

is always there to be discovered. Nothing passes away, or rather, nothing passes away without leaving a trace. Every step we take, however small, has significance for our present and our future existence.

If I wanted to order a ring for myself, the inscription I should choose would be: 'Nothing passes away.' I believe that nothing passes away without leaving a trace, and that every step we take, however small, has significance for our present and our future existence. Anton Chekhov

is that which remains behind, and unless erased, subsequent blows will produce not more blisters, but sores.

One who has had fever, even when it has left him, is not in the same condition of health as before, unless indeed his cure is complete. Something of the same sort is true also of diseases of the mind. Behind, there remains a legacy of traces and blisters: and unless these are effectually erased, subsequent blows on the same spot will produce no longer mere blisters, but sores. If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit... give it nothing which may tend its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry: 'I used to be angry every day, then every other day: next every two, next every three days!' and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the Gods in thanksgiving. (epictetus 'sayings' 43)

is the distancing required in the deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence, whereby presence is proximity.

Derrida defines presence as proximity (VP 83-84/75)... this definition of presence as proximity implies that the deconstruciton of the metaphysics of presence places the origin of presence in a distancing which makes the origin absent... in other words, ideas originate in a non-presencing. This distancing and non-presencing Derrida calls the trace'

is the footprint in the sand, or a mark of an absence which the object that has gone elsewhere leaves behind.

Then there is the trace, the footprint in the sand, the sign about which Robinson Crusoe makes no mistake. Here sign and object separate. The trace, in its negative aspect, draws the natural sign to a limit at which it becomes evanescent. The distinction between sign and object is quite clear here, since the trace is precisely what the object leaves behind once it has gone off somewhere else. Objectively there is no need for any subject to recognise a sign for it to be there a trace exist even if there is nobody to look at it. (Seminar III, p.167).

is the part played by the radically other within the structure of difference that is the sign.

Derrida, then, gives the name 'trace' to the part played by the radically other within the structure of difference that is the sign. (I stick to 'trace' in my translation, because it 'looks the same' as Derrida's word... the reader must remind himself of at least the track, even the spoor, contained within the French word.) (heidegger in spivak in on grammatology : 17)

is the unconscious 'grain of truth' in every projection.

Much later, Freud became interested in the criticism, and answered it in terms of the unconscious 'grain of truth' in every projection (1922b). (Bass 'interpretation and difference' : 55)

is a kind of faint gush inscribed upon time.

Such traces (the ward suits the haiku, a kind of faint gush inscribed upon time) establish what we have been able to call "the vision without commentary."

trace, n.All

trace