France had been overrun, and French Algeria was governed by the collaborationist Pétain regime. In line with Nazi decrees, in 1942 racial laws were introduced, bringing to the surface a latent anti-Semitism amongst the European population. Derrida was informed by a master at school: “French culture is not made for little Jews.”
It was the privilege of the top pupil to raise the French
flag each morning at school; but in Derrida’s case this was reassigned to
the second in the class.
A quota system was introduced limiting each lycée (high school) to 14 percent Jews.
Derrida’s headmaster soon took it upon himself to reduce this quota to
7 percent, and Derrida was expelled. At street level such attitudes
degenerated to name-calling and even violence.
The effect of all this on an exceptionally intelligent, sensitive
pupil can only be imagined. It is also equally understandable that the man
who emerged from this experience should deny the effect of his early life
on his later thought. After all, his avowed aim was to interrogate
philosophy, not himself. Consequently he remained averse to supplying
personal details that appeared to provide a causal link between his life
and his work. And with some justice. It should be remembered that the
mature survivor thought out his philosophy despite such attempts to sabotage his intellectual and
social life.(Paul Strathern, p. 8)
那我的型塑性經驗是 ...
