Theory & Criticism
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a strategy of reading and textual analysis developed by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (in 'Of Grammatology' and 'Writing and Difference,' 1967). Deconstruction reveals a text's internal contradictions, hidden hierarchies, and binary oppositions (speech/writing, presence/absence, center/periphery), showing their instability and mutual reversibility. Derrida's key concepts are 'différance,' the 'trace,' the 'dissemination of meaning,' and the critique of 'logocentrism' and the 'metaphysics of presence.' Deconstruction denies the idea of a final, 'correct' meaning of a text, asserting the fundamental plurality of readings. In literary studies it became the basis of the Yale school of criticism (Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, Harold Bloom). Deconstruction influenced poststructuralism, postmodern theory, and postcolonial studies, altering the very conception of the nature of the text.
Video
Compare “Deconstruction” with another term
Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two stages of French theory, the second negating the first. Structuralism seeks stable, closed STRUCTURES and objective laws of meaning, describing the "grammar" of the text through a system of binary oppositions. Deconstruction (Derrida) reveals in these oppositions inner contradictions and instability, showing the endless "play" of meaning and the impossibility of a final sense. Structuralism builds a system; deconstruction shows how the system undermines itself.
