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Deconstruction

Synonymous with poststructuralism (used interchangeably) Emerged in the 1960s, coined by Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher and teacher According to Derrida, Western metaphysics has invented a variety of terms that functions as

centers: God, reason, origin, being, essence, truth, humanity, beginning, end and self.

The Western proclivity for this center he calls, logocentrism. Decentering, questioning the old center, establishes a new one. Concept ofBINARY OPPOSITION, God/humankind, good/evil. DIFFERANCE, a termed coined by Derrida which is pivotal in understanding deconstruction or

the What if? question.

Methodology:

First stage: recognize the existence and operation of binary opposites in our thinking, 2nd stage: readily

reverse it. When the hierarchy is reversed, we can examine those values and beliefs that give rise to

both the original hierarchy and the newly created one, revealing the meaning of terms arising from their

difference.

In the interpretative process of a text, deconstructors seek to overrule their own logocentric and

inherited ways of viewing a text. By identifying the binary oppositions that exist they can now show the

preconceived assumptions upon which most of us base our interpretation.

Ex. God/Satan Satan/God

Man/Woman Woman/Man

We know truth for instance because we know deception; we know good because we know bad.

According to deconstructors, we cannot simultaneously see this views or levels in the story. To do this,we must suspend our first level of interpretation.

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In textual analysis, we assume that there exist multiple interpretations and that it allows itself to be

reread countless times. Since no one correct interpretations of a text exist, the joy of textua l analysis

resides in discovering new interpretations each time a text is read or reread.

It also aims at challenging the fixed views associated by such hierarchies and the values associated with

such rigid beliefs.

Meaning evolves as we readers , interact with the text, with both the readers and the text providing

social and cultural context.

Deconstruction do not wish to set up a new philosophy, a new literary theory of analysis, or a new

school of criticism. Instead they present a reading strategy that allows us to make choices concerning

the various levels of interpretations we see in the text. In addition we may never declare such a reading

to be complete or finished, for the process of meaning is ongoing, never r allowing us to pledge

allegiance to any one view.

Overall, deconstruction aims at an ongoing relationship between the interpreter (the critic) and the text.By examining the text alone, deconstructors hop e to ask a set of questions that continually challenges

the ideological positions of power and authority that dominate literary criticism. And in discovering new

meaning in a text, they declare that criticism itself is just a valuable as the creative writing that is being

read, thus inverting the creative writing/ criticism hierarchy.