Divided Voices and Imperial identity in Propertius 4.1 and Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other and Politics of Friendship

Propertius and Derrida use a similar formal technique to explore the structure of identity under imperial conditions. This is the divided voice, where significant elements of authorial self-expression occur in the voice of an oppositional other. These texts enact a dialectic without synthesis between a more normative self and one that undergoes dispossession, loss of citizenship, various restrictions on speech, or other forms of limitation or exclusion. They raise the question of the extent to which singular individuals, whose identities do not and cannot fit the ideological norm, can be paradigmatic for identity within their own times and political circumstances. While Propertius emerges as singular, that is, an individual within a series, Derrida claims a unique status that marks a difference between ancient and modern conceptions of the self.