Ateleia/Autoimmunity

I would like to highlight an important connection between Der-rida’s use of the term “autoimmunity” in his later work and the postal principle of The Post Card. Specifically, I want to point out that the notion of the stamp (stretching from “stamp” to “tim-bre” and the “post card” itself in “Envois”), which resonates in the associations of sending at the heart of the postal principle itself, connects to the logic of the immunis which generates “au-toimmunity.” The connection is articulated in the historical con-struction of the name of stamp collection, or love of the stamp as “philately,” which is constructed with the help of the Greek ateleia. Both terms, ateleia and immunis, refer to tax exemption.