Deconstruction

LOGOCENTRISM: Western desire to find a center and its belief in ultimate reality or center of truth to serve as basis for all thoughts and actions



POSTMODERNISM
Challenges modernity’s view of world No objective reality All definitions of truth are subjective Truth is relative Map of meaning replaced with metaphor of collage Reality is human construct Meaning is provisional Decline of influence of religious systems
Arbitrary. . .
Sign Is Arbitrary

Key Eye Note Lie Guys Honey

Home Post Book Girls Baby Heart
DERRIDA AND SAUSSURE

Derrida affirms concept of language system based on difference



Syntax Signifier Signified Sign Transcendental Signified Logocentrism Binary Oppositions Privileged Unprivileged
TERMS, continued


Phonocentrism Metaphysics of presence Supplementation Differance

HOWEVER, IN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE. . .
The container was filled with glass.



Spoken or written “container” was signified in previous sentence, but Now is the signifier Its signified the concept of an object that can be filled Notice the changing use of the word GLASS
MODERNITY
• Power and strength of individual mind • Truth is to be discovered scientifically • Texts possess some objective knowable existence that may be analyzed
DECONSTRUCTION



Casts doubts on previously held theories that sought to find meaning(s) in a text Declares that a text has an almost infinite number of possible interpretations Some assert that interpretations are as creative and important as the text
Structuralism, continued



Reader has mastered codes before he/she ever picks up the text Proper study of literature is inquiry into conditions surrounding the act of interpretation itself, not the investigation of the text Structuralists seek to discover the overall system (langue) that accounts for the individual interpretation (parole)
DOG CAT PIG MAN
SIGNIFIER

SPOKEN OR WRITTEN FORM


Read this word: FIRE Say this word: FIRE
SIGNIFIED: concept or thing
SIGNIFIED: concept or thing
Fire?????????
Western metaphysics invents a variety of terms to function as centers Each can operate as a concept that is selfsufficient and self-originating Thus serving as transcendental signified
Important Terms to Know





Modernism Postructuralism Postmodernism Deconstruction Signification Langue Parole Mimetic Phonology Grammar



Deconstruction
Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice
A Review of Structuralism

Language is primary means of signification Signification is how we achieve meaning through linguistic signs and other symbols Language comprises its own rulegoverned system to achieve meaning Language is not the only sign system Act of reading is a cultural and social practice that contains its own codes Meaning in a text resides in these codes

Derrida asserts that the signified can also only be known through relationships
I filled the glass with milk.

Glass is signifier of the signified concept of a container to hold the milk
Ferdinand Saussure

Linguistic SIGN (word)
SIGNIFIER (spoken sound or written symbol)


SIGNIFIED (concept signaled by signifier)
Linguistic Sign

Is defined by differences that distinguish if from other signs
DECONSTRUCTION



Challenges structuralist assumptions that a text’s meaning can be discovered through an examination of its structural codes. Operates under the maxim of undecidability Asks a new set of questions to show that what a text claims it says and what it actually says are different
Deconstruction: a new reading strategy
Discover binary oppositions that govern a text Comment on values, concepts, ideas beyond the binaries Reverse these binaries Dismantle previously held worldviews Accept possibilities of various perspectives or levels of meaning Allow meaning to be undecidable
MODERNITY
• Human ability to reason and to gndoubtable truths supplied by mathematics • Science can lead the way to complete understanding of the physical world