Abstract

This article undertakes a rereading of Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), arguing that the novel engages in the construction of authority as a lost origin which is also projected into the future as a political goal. The essay draws on Derrida's concept of the ‘supplement’ to trace how the text combines names, buildings, and documents in ‘archi-textual’ structures that seek to establish and secure this lost authority. The tension between the need to construct authority and the need to project it as a pre-existing origin can never be settled and operates as a driving force within the text.

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