Transcript Deconstruction Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice Charles E. Bressler

Deconstruction
Literary Criticism: An Introduction to
Theory and Practice
Charles E. Bressler
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
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)
DECONSTRUCTION



Challenges structuralist
assumptions that a text’s meaning
can be discovered through and
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



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
Important Terms to Know










Modernism
Postructuralism
Postmodernism
Deconstruction
Signification
Langue
Parole
Mimetic
Phonology
Grammar









Syntax
Signifier
Signified
Sign
Transcendental
Signified
Logocentrism
Binary Oppositions
Privileged
Unprivileged
TERMS, continued




Phonocentrism
Metaphysics of presence
Supplementation
Differance
MODERNITY
• Human ability to reason and to
grasp truth (Enlightenment)
• Undoubtable truths supplied by
mathematics
• Science can lead the way to
complete understanding of the
physical world
MODERNITY
• Power and strength of individual
mind
• Truth is to be discovered
scientifically
• Texts possess some objective
knowable existence that may be
analyzed
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
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
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?????????
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
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
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
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



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
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