Derrida and the potentiality of literature: Notes on Derrida’ s “The Law of Genre”

In this article I trace Derrida's modus of reading literary works focusing on "The Law of Genre".First, I offer a reconstruction of Derrida' s text and analyze the strategy of reading in which one uses elements of what one reads as tools of interpretation.I then argue that this strategy allows the text to indicate its singularity.However, the singularity of literary works is associated with their potentiality, or what Derrida calls in Glas "POTENCE du texte".In the third and final part of the article, the singular potentiality of literature is outlined.