critical approaches to literature [deconstruction]

7/29/2019 Critical Approaches to Literature [Deconstruction]

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Deconstruction is a method ofreading which is based on the assumptionthat language is unreliable. The goal of a deconstructionist reading is to seek out the

contradictions in the text to prove that the text lacks unity and coherence. The point

isn't really to show that the text means the opposite of what it is supposed to mean,

but that there can be no actual interpretation of the text. Although deconstruction isprimarily applied to the written word, some practitioners use deconstructive

techniques to analyze concepts, systems and institutions.

Deconstructionist critics tend to emphasize not what is being said but how

language is used in a text.


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Mostly people express their thoughts in Things that is

true but not true. Perfect but imperfect. Something is white but not black, masculine

and therefore not feminine. Other common and mutually exclusive pairs include

beginning/end, conscious/unconscious, and presence/absence. Some thoughts have

contradictions which mean that it cant be both true at the same time. In

deconstruction, there is no real interpretation of the text.


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According to J. Hillis Miller, the preeminent American deconstructor, he

explains in his essay entitled Stevens Rock and Criticism as Cure that

deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration

that it has already dismantles itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock but thin

air.

J. Hillis Miller says here that deconstruction is not an act of taking

something apart from the structure of a text but instead it shows that it has

already dismantles itself.


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Involves close reading of texttodemonstrate that any given text hasirreconcilably contradictory meanings rather

than a unified, logical whole. Language does not refer to any external

reality(like Formalism)

The aimof deconstruction is to criticize

western logic but arose as a response tostructuralism and formalism


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See text as more radically heterogeneous

than in formalist way.

See works in terms of theirundesirability

It regards language as fundamentally

unstable medium

The text is based only on the authors

intentions

Language & Logic are always ruled by

hierarchical oppositions. (ex. Good andEvil)


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An Algerian-born french philosopher

Founder of deconstruction

His voluminous work had a profound impact upon continental philosophy, French

philosophy, and literary theory.

In 1983 co-founded the Collge international de philosophie (CIPH), an institutionintended to provide a location for philosophical research which could not be carried

out elsewhere in the academy. He was elected as its first president.

The 1966 paper, in addition to establishing Derrida's international reputation, marked

the start of Derrida's use of the concept of deconstruction.


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Highly influential German philosopher

Best known work is Being and Time(1927).

French philosopher and literary theorist

Well-known for his articulation of Postmodernism after the late

1970s and the analysis of the impact of post modernity on the

human condition


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Member of the International College of Philosophy

Best known as an expert on deconstruction and the works of

Jacques Derrida and Jean-Franois Lyotard

Belgian-born deconstructionist literary critic and

theorist


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Has been an important Humanities and Literary scholar specializing in

Victorian and Modernist literature

Was heavily influenced by fellow Johns Hopkins professor and French

literary critic Georges Poulet and the Geneva School of literarycriticism


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1. Enhances creativity, critical thinking and more mental analysis.

2. Open to the idea that language is evolving, thus future generation

need not to be given a limited picture or space of its past or history.

3. Encourages free flow of ideas or mental freedom.

4. Writings becomes only literary.

critical approaches to literature [deconstruction]

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