1. Structuralism dominated literary theory in the 1950s-1960s, analyzing language and literature through rule-governed systems of meaning.
2. Deconstruction emerged in the 1960s through Jacques Derrida and challenged structuralism by arguing that texts have infinite interpretations and interpretations are as creative as the text.
3. Deconstruction dismantled philosophical assumptions of modernism by revealing the instability of binary oppositions and questioning the possibility of a transcendental signified.
1. Structuralism dominated literary theory in the 1950s-1960s, analyzing language and literature through rule-governed systems of meaning.
2. Deconstruction emerged in the 1960s through Jacques Derrida and challenged structuralism by arguing that texts have infinite interpretations and interpretations are as creative as the text.
3. Deconstruction dismantled philosophical assumptions of modernism by revealing the instability of binary oppositions and questioning the possibility of a transcendental signified.
1. Structuralism dominated literary theory in the 1950s-1960s, analyzing language and literature through rule-governed systems of meaning.
2. Deconstruction emerged in the 1960s through Jacques Derrida and challenged structuralism by arguing that texts have infinite interpretations and interpretations are as creative as the text.
3. Deconstruction dismantled philosophical assumptions of modernism by revealing the instability of binary oppositions and questioning the possibility of a transcendental signified.
of different forms of structuralism dominated European and American literary theory: The French structuralism of Roland Barthes. The Russian structuralist narratology of Vladimir Propp Jonathan Culler’s American brand of structuralist poetics, to name a few. The application of structuralist principles varies from one theorician to another, but all believe that language is the primary means of signification (HOW we achieve meaning) and that language comprises its own rule- governed system to achieve meaning.
Holding to the principles of Ferdinand de
Saussure, the founding father of structuralism, structuralist seek to discover the overall system (langue) that accounts for an individual interpretation (parole) of a text. Deconstruction declares that a text has an almost infinite number of possible interpretation. And the interpretation themselves are just as creative and important as the text being interpreted. Underlying all of these predeconstructionist views of the world is a set of assumptions called MODERNISM (or the modern worldview). With the coming of deconstruction, these long-held beliefs were challenged, creating poststructuralism, a new basis for understanding and guiding humanity. Deconstruction declares that a text has an almost infinite number of possible interpretations (undecidability) Often historians, anthropologists, literary theorists, and other scholars use the term postmodernism synonymously with deconstruction and poststructuralism, although the term postmodernism was coined in the 1930s and has broader historical implications. For many historian and literary theorists, the Enlightenment of the Age of Reason (18th century) is synonymous with modernism.
That its roots predate this time period is
unquestioned, with some even dating to 1492 (Columbus’s Journeys to the Americas) and its overall spirit lasting until the middle of the 20th century. Philosophically, modernism rests on the foundation laid by Rene Descartes (1596- 1650), a French Philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). The rational essence freed from superstition, from human passions, and from one’s often irrational imagination will allow humankind to discover truth about the physical world. Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin. For Franklin and other enlightened minds, truth is discovered scientifically, not through the unruly and passionate imagination or through one’s feelings or intuition. For several centuries modernity’s chief tenets—that reality can be known and investigated and that humanity possesses and essential nature characterized by rational thought—became the central ideas on which many philosophers, scientists, educators, and writers constructed their world Deconstruction first emerged on the America literary stage in 1966 when Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher and teacher, read his paper “Structure, Sign, and Play” at a Johns Hopkins University symposium. His approach to reading (and literary analysis) is more a strategic device than a methodology, more a strategy or approach to literature than a school or theory of criticism. Derridean deconstruction begins with and emphatically affirms Saussure’s decree that language is a system based on differences. Derrida agrees with Saussure that we can know the meaning of signifiers through and because of their relationship and differences among themselves. But, unlike Saussure, Derrida also applies this reasoning to the signified. Like the signifier, the signified (or concept) can also be known only through its relationship and its differences among other signifieds. Furthermore, declares Derrida, the signified cannot orient or make permanent the meaning of the signifier, for the relationship between the signifier and the signified is both arbitrary and conventional. And, accordingly, signifieds often function as signifiers. I filled the glass with milk. the spoken or written word glass is a signifier; its signified is the concept of a container that can be filled. But in the sentence the container was filled with glass, the spoken word or written word container is now a signifier; its signified being the concept of an object that can be filled. Transcendental signified Logocentrism (the belief that there is un ultimate reality or center of truth that can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and action) Binary opposition (conceptual oppositions) Phonocentrism (the priviliging of speech over writing) Metaphysics of presence an external point of reference on which one may build a concept or philosophy. Once found, this transcendental signified would provide ultimate meaning, being the origins, reflecting itself. If we posit that I or self is transcendental signified, then the concept of self becomes the unifying principle on which I structure my world. Unlike other signified, the transcendental signified would have to be understood without being compared to other signifieds or signifiers. If I declare the concept self to be my transcendental signified and then learn that my mind or self is composed of the id, ego, and the superego, I could no longer hold the self or I to be my transcendental signified. Accordingly, derrida coins the phrase metaphysic of presence to encompass the ideas such as logocentrism, phonocentrism, the operation of binary opposition, and other notions that Western thought holds concerning language and metaphysics. His objective is to demonstrate the shaky foundations on which such beliefs have been established. By deconstructing the basic premises of metaphysic of presence, Derrida believes he gives us a strategy of reading that opens up a variety of new interpretation heretofore unseen by those who are bound by the restraints of Western thought. The top/first elements in the following list of binary oppositions are privileged: Man/woman, human/animal, soul/body, good/bad, speech/writing. Derrida decrees that western thought has long privileged speech over writing. This privileging of speech over writing Derrida calls phonocentrism. 1. Acknowledging Binary Oppositions is Western Thought. 2. Ache-writing 3. Supplementation (unstable relation between elements in a binary opposition) 4. Differance 5. Deconstructive supposition for textual analysis. Discover the binary operations that govern the text. Comment on the values, concept, and ideas beyond these operations. Reverse these present binary operations. Dismantle previously held worldviews. Accept the possibility of various perspectives or levels of meaning in the text based on the new binary inversions. Allow meaning of the text to be undecidability.