Literary Theory

Assignment

Name: Kunvarani Nidhi K

Paper: ‘Literary Theory and criticism.’ 

Topic: ‘Examples of ‘Deconstruction’.’      

 S. t. d:  M.A-(sem-2)

Roll. no:  11

Year:  2013

Allotted to:

Respected sir,Dr.Dilip Barad

                        Heenaba Zala

                          &

                ‘Department Of English’

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji University

Bhavnagar.  

 §  Examples of “Deconstruction”:

                                                                    

First of all for  the ourselves it is very necessary to know the term about “Deconstruction”. So, Let see What is the meaning of “Deconstruction”.

                                                         

Deconstruction, as applied in the criticism of literature, designates a theory and practice of reading which questions and claims to “subvert” or “undermine” the assumption that the system of language provides grounds that are adequate to establish the boundaries, the coherence or unity, and the determinate meanings of a Literary text, Typically, a deconstructive reading sets out to show that conflicting forces within the text itself serve to dissipate the seeming definiteness of its structure and meanings into an indefinite array of incompatible and undecidable possibilities.

   -Jacques Derrida

 (from ‘The structuralist controversy,

Ed.Richard machsey and Donato E Baltimore)

                                                   

Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher whose writings inspired the practice of decostructive  criticism from the late sixties, and  who first employed the word ‘deconstruction’ in his influential ‘De la Grammatologie(1967)’ helpful to note come dictionary meanings he wanted ‘Deconstruction’ to suggest ‘Deconstruction’ taken on its meanings from  its deployment in Derrida’s work rather than from the establishment of a-

“Primitive meaning or outside of any contextual strategy”

  -Derrida(1983)

    Page.3                           

Paul de man notes approvingly of ‘Deconstruction’ that ‘no other  word  states so economically the impossibility to evaluate positively or negatively, the inescapable evaluation it implies’ Barbara Johnson argues that-

“ ‘Deconstruction’ is not synonymous with ‘destruction’……It is fact much closer to the original meaning of the word ‘analysis’, which etymologically means ‘to de-construct’.The  de-construction of a text does not proceed by random doubt or arbitrary subversion, but by the careful teasing out of warring forces of  signification within the text itself.If anything is destroyed in a  deconstructive reading, it is not the  text, but the claim to unequivocal domination of one mode of signifying over  another.

  -Barbara Johnson

    (1980. page=5)

Here, Derrida gives the example of ‘Deconstruction’-

“All sentences of the type ‘deconstruction is  x’ or ‘deconstruction is not x’, a ‘priori’, miss the point… one of the principal things at the stake in what  is called in my texts’, ‘deconstruction’ is precisely the delimiting of ontology and above all of the third parson present  indicative: s is p”.

                                                       

 Derrida’s ‘ letter to a Japanese Friend’-

“A lucid point of entry in to what is a formidably difficult  corpus: ‘Deconstruction’ is not an analysis  in particular because the dismantling of a structure is not a  regression toward a

‘simple element’, towards an ‘in dissolution’.

Derrida‘s ‘Letter to a Japanese Friend’      (1983 a, page=4)

Another reason against the  understanding of deconstruction as a species of  post-structuralism  is that there are other contexts within which Derrida works the phenomenological tradition for  instance, especially the writings of Edmund Husseri. Derrida offers readings of Hegel, Heidegger, Husseri, Rousseau as well as the structuralist avatars Saussure and Levi-strauss.

‘Deconstruction’ is the process like this-

“If you write, Meaning is die”.

 -Plato

Because meaning is  in the context  not in the text. So, plato says that if you write then meaning is die. Because  meaning of each and every word is change with the context in in which the word is used.  Every word  puts comma not a full-point  in the end. Because if you found one meaning of the  word. Then ,that word  forced to toy to see the another meaning of the word. one meaning of the word ‘post-pones’ or ‘promises’ toward one another in this way the process of ‘Deconstruction’ is going on and on. Each one word de-construct to one another word.

The process of ‘deconstruction’ is like this. If majority  of the people accept anything then it’s became reality for the everyone. Even if it’s not so. For example-

1.) white-Black             

2.) Men-women

3.) Day –Night 

     We can see that all words like white, Men, Day comes in the category of the superiority  while Black, women, Night comes in the category of the inferiority or in the category of object. But, if many people accept Black,Women and Night as a superiority  then  the idea of superiority is changed. That is  the process of ‘Deconstruction’.

 We  are take  one another example of ‘Deconstruction’-

1.        Time flies like an arrow.

Most of us are familiar with this old saying, and we know it means that time passes quickly.

Time    flies  like an arrow. =Time passes

(Noun)(verb)(Adv, clause)       quickly.

If I asked you to suggest additional meanings, you might say that  the sentence could also mean that time moves in the one direction , or straight ahead, because that’s arrows fly. But, what would happen if we thought of the first word of the sentence as a verb in the imperative mode- telling us to do something-and the second word a if it represented a kind of insect? Then the sentence would be giving us an order.

Time flies like an arrow. =Time flies as         

(Noun) (Verb) (Object)     as fond of arrow.                                                                                                       

                                            

                             This exercise shows how, without changing a single word, a single sentence can have several meanings. It’s an example of ‘Deconstructed construction’.

Conclusion:

There are some examples of the ‘Deconstruction’ And, I think that, this answer is enough to  know about What is the meaning of ‘Deconstruction’? And, some example of the ‘Deconstruction’.