The Ghost of Jacques Derrida

Abstract

This essay examines the phrase-"here, now, yes, believe me, I believe in ghosts"-a phrase uttered by Derrida in a filmed interview. It takes up Derrida's avowal ofbelief in ghosts, not simply to explain the significance of "ghosts," simulacra, doubles, hence images, in Derrida's work and to show their relation to death and mourning, or to merely draw an analogy between the structure of doubles or simulacra and what we may call "synthetic" images, but also to attend to the alliance between the image, the ghostly, and belief.