Abstract:
Jacques Derrida’s text Éperons: Les Styles de Nietzsche explores Nietzsche’s writing on woman.
While Nietzsche is generally infamous for his misogynistic attitude, Derrida also discovers a
certain identification with the feminine on Nietzsche’s part. In his investigation of the tension
that these two facts bring forth, Derrida pays close attention to the indeterminacy of (meaning
in) language. I explore this difficulty by relating Derrida’s text to the notion of iterability. For
Derrida, iterability is that characteristic in language that ensures that the meaning of a word or
sign remains meaningful as it appears from one context to the next. I investigate especially how
iterability also produces a dissimulative effect in language and meaning, in Derrida’s view.
Showing the importance of iterability and dissimulation for Derrida’s interpretation of Nietzsche,
I explain how Derrida’s text deconstructs the notion of meaning and interpretation.
