Poststructuralism 2: Derridas Revenge

or, why dont I understand deconstruction?

What deconstruction is not? Everything of course! What is deconstruction? Nothing of course! Jacques Derrida, Letter to a Japanese Friend De(con)structive Critics: Responses to Deconstruction
!" No se#f, no author, no coherent $or%, no re#ation to rea#ity, no correct interpretation, no distinction &et$een art and nonart, fictiona# and e'pository $riting, no va#ue (udg)ent, and fina##y no truth, &ut on#y nothingness*these are negations that destroy #iterary studies" +,en- We##e%, Ne$ Nihi#is) in Literary .tudies /01" 3 vertica# and #atera# rever&eration fro) sign to sign of ghost#y nonpresence e)anating fro) no voice, intended &y no one, referring to nothing, &o)&inating in a void +4eyer 3&ra)s, Deconstructive 3nge#, 56!1" 789 a chro)atic p#enitude, a p#aying of a## possi&#e notes in a## possi&#e registers, a saturation of space +Jonathan :u##er, ;ro#ego)ena to a <heory of ,eading, in The Reader in the Text, 5=1 Deconstruction, as it has co)e to &e ca##ed, refuses to identity the force of #iterature $ith any concept of e)&odied )eaning and sho$s ho$ deep#y such #ogocentric or incarnationist perspectives have inf#uenced the $ay $e thin% a&out art" +>eoffrey ?art)an, ;reface to Deconstruction and Criticism, vi1 Deconstruction is neither a theory nor a phi#osophy" At is neither a schoo# nor a )ethod" At is not even a discourse, nor an act, nor a practice" At is $hat happens, $hat is happening today in $hat they ca## society, po#itics, dip#o)acy, econo)ics, historica# rea#ity, and so on and so forth" +Derrida, .o)e .tate)ents and <ruis)s, /@1 Deconstruction is 789 understood as an affir)ative appropriation of structures that identifies structura# f#a$s, crac%s in the construction that have &een syste)atica##y disguised, not in order to co##apse those structures &ut, on the contrary, to de)onstrate the e'tent to $hich the structures depend on &oth these f#a$s and the $ay in $hich they are disguised" +4ar% Wig#ey, Do)estication of the ?ouse, 20=1 /" C"

has already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is not roc but thin air. !"inda #. $eterson%
Supplements
<he question of deconstruction is a#so through and through the question of trans#ation" +Derrida, Letter to a Japanese Friend 1 For our purposes, it is enough to say that he argues that )eaning and truth are insepara&#e fro) signification, that $estern idea#s of identity are founded on a ruse that o&scures the $ay identity is produced &y nonidentity and difference, that )eaning and truth are effects of the sa)e processes of repetition, su&stitution, and differentiation that characteriDe the )ode of signification such as $riting that are supposed#y e'terna# to truth, that origina#ity and authenticity, t$o va#ues supposed#y #in%ed to truth, do not precede and produce i)itationE rather, they too are derived fro) a process of repetitionFsu&stitution that is the sa)e as the one at $or% in i)itation, that te'ts that participate in the $estern traditionGs va#ue syste) $i## privi#ege va#ues such as virtue or truthfu#ness that are founded on vio#ent act of differentiation, hierarchiDation, and su&ordination, that the &anished others of truth and )eaning, fro) repetition and difference to su&stitution and i)itation, are &anished precise#y &ecause they represent a rich )u#tip#icity of se)antic possi&i#ities that under)ine the paterna#ist and spiritua#ist authority of the $estern idea# of truth, that $hat counts as good and true is a ruse of do)ination and an effect of episte)ic vio#ence, a vio#ence that can never &e ta%en into account &y phi#osophy if the ruse is to operate successfu##y" +4ichae# ,yan, Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction, =6H=5 +e)phasis added11

2"

6"

Some Truths a out Deconstruction

5"

@"

!0" 3 te't is henceforth no #onger a finished corpus of $riting, so)e conte't enc#osed in a &oo% or its )argins, &ut a differentia# net$or%, a fa&ric of traces referring end#ess#y to so)ething other than itse#f, to other differentia# traces" +Derrida, Living In, in Deconstruction and Criticism, BC1

Reading: % &ill put Chaos into 'ourteen lines

!!" Deconstruction cannot #i)it itse#f or proceed i))ediate#y to a neutra#iDationJ it )ust, &y )eans of a dou&#e gesture, a dou&#e science, a dou&#e $riting, practice an overturning of the c#assica# opposition and a genera# displacement of the syste)" At is on#y on this condition that deconstruction $i## provide itse#f the )eans $ith $hich to intervene in the fie#d of oppositions that it criticiDes, $hich is a#so a fie#d of nonHdiscursive forces" +Derrida, Margins of Philosophy, 62C1

!rchitecture " #iterar$ Theor$

B"

7. Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of the text, but a demonstration that it

Deconstructive Conclusions
!2" Deconstruction is a )ode of reading, not confined to te'ts in the restricted sense of the ter) &ut app#ied in ter)s of te'tua#ity to a#)ost everything there is" +Wo#fgang Aser, o! to Do Theory, !20 +e)phasis added11

!6" <his sty#e of criticis) questioned the under#ying assu)ptions &ehind any state)ent, e'posing ho$ $hat $as accepted as a&so#ute truth usua##y depended on rhetoric rather than fact, e'posing indeed ho$ fact itse#f $as constructed &y inte##ectua# operations" +"orton Anthology of American Literature , ed" Nina Kay), Bth ed", EJ !C@/ +e)phasis added11 !5" Whi#e teaching, critiDing, and presenting the great te'ts of our cu#ture are essentia# tas%s, to insist on the i)portance of #iterature shou#d not entai# assigning to #iterary criticis) on#y a service function" +?art)an, vi +e)phasis added11