DECONSTRUCTION Alex Fyffe Jacques Derrida Deconstructionist Deconstruction a

DECONSTRUCTION Alex Fyffe

Jacques Derrida, Deconstructionist Deconstruction, a term coined by French theorist Derrida, changed the course of literary study in the 1970 s

So, What Is Deconstruction? “Before responding to this question, I want to make a preliminary remark on the completely artificial character of this situation. I don’t know who’s going to be watching this, but I want to underline rather than efface our surrounding technical conditions, and not feign a ‘naturality’ which doesn’t exist. I’ve already in a way started to respond to your question about deconstruction, because one of the gestures of deconstruction is not to naturalize what isn’t natural – to not assume that what is conditioned by history, institutions, or society is natural. ” -Derrida

…? Unfortunately, deconstruction is a difficult term to define. Derrida says, “there is not one deconstruction, and deconstruction is not a single theory or a single method, ” and Michael Johnson agrees – “if deconstruction could be neatly defined… it would hardly be different from the tradition it challenges. ” Sly Fox

So, Basically… “Deconstruction is a way to understand how an object was created. Usually the objects it tries to understand are art, books, poems and other writing. Deconstruction is breaking something down into smaller parts. Deconstruction looks at the smaller parts that were used to create an object. The smaller parts are usually ideas. Sometimes deconstruction looks at how an author can imply things he does not mean. It says that because words are not precise, we can never know what an author meant. Sometimes deconstruction looks at the things the author did not say because he made assumptions. ” –Simple English Wikipedia

Two Views of Deconstruction Useful Danger • Exposes the “poverty of current-traditional rhetoric. ” – Crowley • It “tends to confirm our best practice and support our most significant challenges to the worst of what our colleagues are doing. ” –White • “Derrida himself… has insisted repeatedly that deconstruction is teaching as well as interventionist strategy. ” – Atkins and Johnson • Deconstruction is ‘“a danger to composition, ” …fraught with potential problems for unwary students, teachers, and administrators. ’ –Neel • “only a minor deviation. ” – Knoper • It “too frequently… serves merely to reassert the ‘new paradigm’ in writing or undergird it with avant-garde concepts. ” --Peterson

Why We Use It Deconstruction , according to Jon Harned, allows the teacher and the student to be “on an equal footing. . . as… fellow inquirer[s]” instead of placing “the teacher… at the center of the classroom as the authority on the rules of a discursive formation or interpretative community. ”

Gee, That Makes Me Feel Better

Sources Cited Vandenberg, Peter. “deconstruction, ” from Keywords in Composition Studies. 1996 Simple English Wikipedia – Deconstruction. http: //simple. wikipedia. org/wiki/Deconstruction You. Tube clip, “Jacques Derrida - Deconstruction And The 'Eccentric Circle, ’” posted by hiperf 289. http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=8 xy. YGFh. PDHo Ann, Keren. “Ailleurs” from the album La Disparition, EMI, 2002.