The Image of Mourning: on Melancholic Militancy and Remembrance
The Image of Mourning: on Melancholic Militancy and Remembrance

Summary/Abstract: In this article, I present Jacques Derrida’s reflections on melancholy in the context of histhought of mourning and juxtapose them with ethical dilemmas regarding the image ofthe (dead) other by focusing on the mournsome character of photography. By adoptingDerrida’s conclusion that the work of mourning cannot be successful and melancholyalways marks both its teleological failure and structural impossibility, I demonstrate whymelancholy as an abnormal yet necessary condition of egoic life should presuppose origi-nary non-presence of the (dead) other. Furthermore, I argue why melancholy, rather thanbeing treated solely as a pathological condition, must be thought of in terms of survival,ethical revolt, and a militant challenge to memory.

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