Edited by rising Tunisian literary scholar Hassen Zriba, Postmodernism and Narratives of Erasure in Culture, Literature, and Language is a collection of interdisciplinary essays arguing that the concept of “erasure” is an essential analytical tool/mode of thought in shaping conceptualizations of change and continuity in subjects of human knowledge. It defines “erasure” as the act of deleting, of removing something, following the German philosopher Martin Heidegger in his book Being and Time, and proceeds with the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida’s meaning of the inadequacy, but “necessariness,” of some words and concepts. In this volume’s working definition, “erasure” is vital to unlocking the paradoxical nature of the very subject under erasure, allowing us to move beyond fixed binary creations of meaning and significance. Accordingly, erasure substitutes the classical “metaphysics of presence” (fixed meaning) with an alternative “metaphysics of absence,” where meaning is always under construction. Signs are relational, not referential.
This book is unique in its use of an interdisciplinary approach to detect how “erasure” emerges in language, culture, and literature. It examines how the concept shapes and is shaped by various discursive and critical formations in culture, language, and literature. Its major contribution is to expound a fundamental concept of postmodern theory that has been under-theorized to advance understanding the realities of our post-modern times.