The traces of Jacques Derrida's cinema

This dissertation investigates the relative lack of reference to Jacques Derrida’s works in contemporary film and media studies. It makes three main interventions. First, by excavating and reexamining both Derrida’s published corpus and archives, the project demonstrates that cinema occupies an overlooked yet crucial place within his oeuvre, thus calling into question the relative absence of reference to it in the field. Secondly, it develops a film theory project Derrida proposed on cinema and belief while exploring deconstruction’s applicability to moving image media through the films of David Lynch. Thirdly, the dissertation argues that Derrida’s analyses of the university are exceptionally timely for the field as it encounters the ascendency of digital technologies and the ensuing instability of its objects and methodological commitments.