The Preface Violates Space and Time

As Derrida points out, the preface is problematic. In print, the preface attempts to explain what will come. But what will come will be explained in the work itself. In effect, the preface is outside the work, and it comes before the work, to be read before the rest of the work. The preface "recreates the intention-to-say after the fact" and thus violates the space of the work by pretending to be part of the work while being spatially and temporally detached from it. As Hegel puts it, "the preface announces a project and a project is nothing until it is realized" (Phenomenolgy of the Mind 158).

Derrida on the Preface Background vs. Beginning