The User-Friendliness of Returntocinder.com (a database of the work of Jacques Derrida)

Jake Reeder, Marist College

Returntocinder.com is a concordance-style database of the work of Jacques Derrida. In this workshop, I will analyze the pedagogical value of the condensed grammar of the 14,000 entries, and demonstrate the unique and efficient search options the site provides. Among the many ideas associated with Derrida, those most pertinent to this project are dissemination and the university without conditions. The website also includes entries from other authors, hoping to serve as a massive prosthetic resource of the central ideas of the Western tradition. The site aspires to offer a “user-friendliness worthy of the name.”