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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.