Literature Carries Philosophy’s Open Secret: On Derrida’s Reading of Romeo and Juliet

This paper attempts a close reading of Derrida’s texts, particularly with a focus on his brief but significant reading of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in “Aphorism Countertime” (originally published in French in 1986). We compare this short work with his more sustained engagement with the philosophy of death in Aporias (1993), which itself is an attempted critique of Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927); the latter is, arguably, the most influential work of twentieth-century continental European philosophy, particularly on issues of time, death, and authentic life. The paper tries to show that a fruitful engagement between philosophy and literature, via Derrida’s deconstruction as an example, can alter fundamental conceptions in philosophy itself, for example on time, death, and love; but only if we are able to dismantle traditional biases and hierarchies, which suggest only impersonal logic as objective science can reveal truth, whereas literature, or fiction by nature, is, sophistically, only illusion or mimicry but never real. Art is art, and reality is reality, and the two shall never meet. Instead, some of the greatest mysteries and concerns in human experience itself, and hence the bedrock of the humanities, like time, death, and love, can be seen in new light when boundaries and rigidities that exclude the potentiality of dialogue dissolve and philosophy and literature enrich each other without judging or neglecting the other. The paper calls for further reflection on where this dialogue may go in the future. Submitted: May 11, 2026 Accepted: June 5, 2026