Post on 13-Jan-2016
Deconstructive Perspectives
What is Deconstruction?
A RADICAL approach to reading. This Literary Criticism is NOT
FULLY DEVELOPED! The founder is Jacques Derrida Explained as a strategy “Rules
for… Reading Interpretation Writing
History of Deconstruction
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and Frederik Nietzsches (1844-1900) were pioneers in Deconstruction.
They began to question the objective truth of language.
This time is also known as Poststructuralist, it came after Structuralism.
Binary Oppositions The most important
part of Deconstruction.
This type of criticism looks at the binary oppositions that are NOT in the story.
There is a dominant and a non-dominant section of each.
DeconstructionistsAnother Type of Structuralist
Look for opposition in literary works.
Look for other kinds of texts such as: Films, Advertisements Social institutions
SchoolsHospitals
EMPHASIZING DIFFERENCES
Black/White Light/Dark
Young/Old Male/Female Alive/Dead Near/Far Good/EvilSight/Blindness Masked/Unmasked Animate/Inanimate
Past/Present Construct/Deconstruct Hope/Despair Lost/Found Whole/Part
Deconstruction Differs from Structuralism:
They believe there are always things that need to be called into question about a text. They need to be: Subverted Undermined Challenged
Deconstructionists believe:
Language is irretrievably self-contradictory and self-destroying.
Literary works mean more than the author is aware of.
Their meanings are as unstable as the language in which they are constructed.
The work is always more than the surface.
To explain, they use terms such as:
UnmaskingUnravelingRecoveringSuppressionContradiction
Playing with Language
It could be that there is a word that has a different meaning.
It could be that the absence of a word can have a double meaning.
The EXPLICIT meaning may be hidden behind an “obvious” meaning and the IMPLICT meaning is suppressed.
Impact of Deconstruction
Takes away from the text because you look for what is not there.
Makes literature seem like “word play” (Dobie).
Humanists view it as a “wedge between life and literature” (Dobie).
Looks for the Ideologies in our language.
Poem Deconstruction-- Snow
Snow by Frederick Siedel
Snow is what it doesIt falls and it stays and it
goes.It melts and it is here
somewhere.We all will get there.
Source: Poetry (September, 2012)
Look at the Symbolism of snow to extract the opposite: Cold White WinterUsually symbolizing death so the opposite could be life.This poem could be talking about the Rebirth of humans in Religion.
Poem Deconstruction: Six Lines for Louis Brogan
Six Lines for Louis BoganBy: Michael Collier
All that has tamed me, I have learned to love.
and lost that wildness that was once beloved
All that was loved I’ve learned to tame and lost the beloved that once
was wild.
All that is wild is tamed by love---and the beloved (wildness) that
once was loved.
This poem almost deconstructs itself.Notice that there are 2 parts to each sentence, making 4 in each line.This poem tells of each opposite in itself.TamedLoveWildnessBeloved
Work Cited
DiYanni, Robert, Literature: Reading Fiction,
Poetry and Drama. McGraw Hill, 2007, print.
Dobie, Anne B., Theory Into Practice,
Wadsworth, Centage Learning, 2012, print.