Deconstruction Theory: Derrida

The term "deconstruction" denotes a particular kind of practice in reading and thereby a theory, a method of criticism and mode of analytical inquiry. In her book "the Critical Difference" (1981) Barbara Johnson clarifies the term ‘deconstruction’:

"Deconstruction is not synonymous with destruction, however it is in fact, much closer to the original meaning of the word analysis' itself, which etymologically means, "to undo"- a virtual synonym for "to-deconstruction". The destruction of a text does not proceed by random doubt or arbitrary subversion, but by the careful teasing out of warring forces signification without 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. A deconstructive reading is a reading, which analyses the specificity of a texts critical difference from itself. "

Deconstruction owes much to the theories of the French philosopher Jaques Derrida (1930-) His essay "structure, sign and Play" began a new critical movement of the theory of deconstruction. He follows the same view in his later book "Of Grammatology". Deconstruction has been so far the most influential feature of post-structuralism, because it defines a new kind of reading practice, which is a key application of post-structuralism.

Derrida shows that a text can be seen as saying something quite different from what it appears to be saying, and that it may read as carrying a plurality of significance or as saying many different things which are fundamentally at variance with, contradictory to and subversive of what may be seen by criticism as a single, stable meaning. Thus text may betray itself. a deconstruction criticism of a text reveals that there is nothing except the text. That is one cannot evaluate, criticize or construct a meaning for a text by reference to anything external to it.
Derrida carries his logic still further to suggest that the language of any discourse is at variance with itself. By being so it is capable of being read as yet another language. In short a text may possess so many different meanings that it cannot have a meaning. There is no guaranteed essential meaning. An immediate deconstructive practice would be to question the foregoing sentence by asking what is meant by guaranteed, essential and meaning in that text.

The implication of Derrida's "deconstruction" theory are that any form of traditional literary criticism which employs the practical tools of comparison and analysis patiently and attentively to elucidate meaning is a self-defeating practice since the rhetoric of both the literary text and literary criticism is inherently unstable.

The initial stage of Derrida's deconstructive theory is the contention that both speech and writing are signifying processes, which lack "presence". He disestablishes and replaces the traditional "hierarchy" of speech over writing to suggest that speech and writing are forms of one science of language and grammatology.

The inherent, subversive, self-contradictory and self-betraying elements in a text include what is not in the text, what is outside to text and what is not said.
Other upholders of the deconstructive theory are Geoffrey Hartman, Harold Bloom, Barbara Johnson and so forth.