Post-structuralism: Jacques Derrida
European-based theoretical movement that departs from structuralist methods of analysis
Deconstruction is a US based method of literary and cultural analysis influenced by the work of Jacques Derrida
Radically challenges commonsense assumptions about language...
language is not a vehicle for the communication of pre-existing thoughts
language is not an instrument or tool in man's hands
language is not a transparent window onto the world
Language is...
unreliable
differential (cf. Saussure)
performative: it shapes/constructs the world and us
Writing, not speech, is the main model for language in general because it is...
not inmediate
context-independent
open-ended
text/arche-writing
generalized notions of writing
There is nothing outside the text
we can never get access to meaning or reality because texts always refers to other texts
language constructs/shapes the world
textuality of the world
Meaning
differential/relational
they acquire meaning only in relation to and in their difference from other sign system
to differ: signs acquire their meaning only in difference from other signs
to endlessly defer (delay): meaning is endlessly deferred because signs always refer to other signs
metaphysics of presence
belief in a fixed reference point/presence outside of language, a transcendental signified, to which we owe respect
transcendental signified
fixed reference point/ concept/ presence that...
exists outside of (transcends) language
grounds language
legitimates whole systems of thought
can be made present by language
The Enlightenment considers Man as a transcendental signified
e.g. 'the people' in the US constitution
critique of Logocentrism / Decentering
logos: transcendent word, speech, reason, proportion, substance, ground
Logocentrism: belief that language is grounded by a fixed reference point outside language, a transcendental signified whose truth or meaning language conveys
religion, philosophy, historiography need a center
Derrida argues that centers are mere constructs of language: all there is is an endless play of differences in which signifiers refer to signifiers, and so on
What does Deconstruction deconstructs?
binary oppositions/ dichotomies
e.g. nature vs culture or man vs woman
How does it work?
Deconstruction actively challenges and undoes binary opposites/ dichotomies in 2 steps
reverses the hierarchy
Undoes the binary systems
Deconstructive critics focus on those moments in texts at which the binary distinctions on which the texts are based break down
deconstructivists show how texts deconstruct themselves
Aporia
impasse, a passage that cannot be explained by means of the text's own binary distinctions
the point at which the dichotomies of which the text is based break down
Deconstruction and Literature
Literature...
... is more obviously non-referential than other language uses
...can be read and enjoyed without reference to historical and social contexts
highlights that language is a closed system
...in its fictionality escapes logocentrism
...plays with language rather than communicating a definite meaning
...aporias, discrepancies, and contradictions are the norm
...problematizes its own status and so invites deconstruction
Is deconstruction apolitical?
no, it challenges to binary oppositions and its decentering of dominant worldviews are political
Political uses
Postcolonial theory
Post-structuralist/ Third-wave Feminism
colonizer/colonized - rational/irrational -master/servant
man/woman - active/passive - reason/feeling