What is a deconstructionist?
For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.’” The deconstructionist does not study the Bible in order to find out the meaning intended by the writer but to attempt to discern the cultural and social motives behind what was written.
What is deconstructive criticism?
Deconstructive criticism follows the belief that objects have meaning because that it was it has been defined as through language. Deconstruction uses the concept of binaries in which one object has been given a sort of privilege, the better appeal i.e. good/bad, love/hate, white/black, and male/female.
What is deconstructionism theory of interpretation?
Answer: Deconstructionism is basically a theory of textual criticism or interpretation that denies there is any single correct meaning or interpretation of a passage or text. At the heart of the deconstructionist theory of interpretation are two primary ideas.
What is deconstruction According to Derrida?
Deconstruction in philosophy. The “privileging” of speech over writing is based on what Derrida considers a distorted (though very pervasive) picture of meaning in natural language, one that identifies the meanings of words with certain ideas or intentions in the mind of the speaker or author.
What is the goal of deconstructionist criticism?
Through deconstruction, Derrida aims to erase the boundary between binary oppositions—and to do so in such a way that the hierarchy implied by the oppositions is thrown into question. Although its ultimate aim may be to criticize Western logic, deconstruction arose as a response to structuralism and formalism.
What is an example of deconstructive thought?
Deconstructionism argues that logical structures based on binaries, or binary pairs, are the bones of society and language. A binary consists of two concepts that are presented as being at odds with each other. Examples include life/death, mind/body, and masculine/feminine.
What is deconstruction in simple words?
Deconstruction doesn't actually mean "demolition;" instead it means "breaking down" or analyzing something (especially the words in a work of fiction or nonfiction) to discover its true significance, which is supposedly almost never exactly what the author intended.
What is deconstructive analysis?
deconstruction, form of philosophical and literary analysis, derived mainly from work begun in the 1960s by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, that questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” in Western philosophy through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and ...
How is deconstructionist criticism done?
Deconstructive critics focus on the text like the formalists, but direct attention to the opposite of the New Critical "unities." Instead, they view the "decentering" of texts and point out incompatabilities, rhetorical grain-against-grain contradictions, undecidability within texts.
What is deconstruction example?
Deconstruction is defined as a way of analyzing literature that assumes that text cannot have a fixed meaning. An example of deconstruction is reading a novel twice, 20 years apart, and seeing how it has a different meaning each time. noun.
What is another word for deconstruction?
What is another word for deconstruct?dissectanatomizeexplicateinterpretbreak downtake apartexamineinvestigatescrutinizeUSinspect148 more rows
What is a synonym for deconstruction?
interpret, dismantle, dissect, decipher, decode, disentangle, explicate, gloss, unravel.
What does it mean to deconstruct a problem?
The art of deconstruction is the process of taking any problem and breaking it down into a set of smaller problems. If you can solve all of the smaller problems you will have solved the big problem.
What is the purpose of Deconstructivism?
Deconstructivism attempts to move away from the supposedly constricting 'rules' of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."
What are the main elements of deconstruction?
Deconstruction has at least two aspects: literary and philosophical. The literary aspect concerns the textual interpretation, where invention is essential to finding hidden alternative meanings in the text.
What can a deconstructive analysis reveal?
There are two reasons to deconstruct literature: “(1) to reveal the text's undecidability and/or (2) to reveal the complex operations of the ideologies of which the text is constructed” (259).
What is a deconstructed sentence?
Sentence deconstruction is a literacy strategy designed to help students understand what a complex sentence means by examining the parts of the sentence carefully. It differs from a vocabulary building exercise because the emphasis is on how the vocabulary works together in the sentence to create meaning.
What does deconstruction mean in psychology?
n. a form of critical analysis of literary texts and philosophical positions that is based on the twin assumptions that there can be no firm referents for language and no adequate grounding for truth claims.
What are the three stages of the deconstructive process?
Deconstruction is Cyclical One theme found often in the bible, that I personally find comfort in, is this seemingly trifold set of stages: Creation, Confusion, Deconstruction. And those three stages happen over and over and over.
How do you deconstruct a text example?
Hunt for overlooked explanations or definitions. Deconstruction urges a reader to resist the general, common meaning of a text, also known as the "privileged" meaning of a text. Consider whether a word, phrase, or text might have alternative explanations that are ignored by many readers.
What is deconstructive criticism?
Description of Theory: Deconstructive criticism follows the belief that objects have meaning because that it was it has been defined as through language. Deconstruction uses the concept of binaries in which one object has been given a sort of privilege, the better appeal i.e. good/bad, love/hate, white/black, and male/female.
What is the theory of deconstruction?
However the theory of deconstruction focuses on how the language of the text may appeal to one binary, but has signs that it favors the opposite, but not necessarily the privileged binary.
Who is the most famous deconstructionist?
Notable Theorist/s: The most famous Deconstructionists is Jacques Derrida who described language as never being stable because any signifier (the object) can mean a range of signified (the idea or symbolism of the object) at any given moment therefore making language as ideological; we give it meaning.
What is the opposition between speech and writing?
Derrida contends that the opposition between speech and writing is a manifestation of the “ logocentrism ” of Western culture —i.e., the general assumption that there is a realm of “truth” existing prior to and independent of its representation by linguistic signs.
What is priviligging speech?
The “privileging” of speech over writing is based on what Derrida considers a distorted (though very pervasive) picture of meaning in natural language, one that identifies the meanings of words with certain ideas or intentions in the mind of the speaker or author. Derrida’s argument against this picture is an extension of an insight by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. For Saussure, the concepts we associate with linguistic signs (their “meanings”) are only arbitrarily related to reality, in the sense that the ways in which they divide and group the world are not natural or necessary, reflecting objectively existing categories, but variable (in principle) from language to language. Hence, meanings can be adequately understood only with reference to the specific contrasts and differences they display with other, related meanings. For Derrida, similarly, linguistic meaning is determined by the “play” of differences between words—a play that is “limitless,” “infinite,” and “indefinite”—and not by an original idea or intention existing prior to and outside language. Derrida coined the term différance, meaning both a difference and an act of deferring, to characterize the way in which meaning is created through the play of differences between words. Because the meaning of a word is always a function of contrasts with the meanings of other words, and because the meanings of those words are in turn dependent on contrasts with the meanings of still other words (and so on), it follows that the meaning of a word is not something that is fully present to us; it is endlessly deferred in an infinitely long chain of meanings, each of which contains the “ traces” of the meanings on which it depends.
What is deconstruction in philosophy?
The oppositions challenged by deconstruction, which have been inherent in Western philosophy since the time of the ancient Greeks, are characteristically “binary” and “hierarchical,” involving a pair of terms in which one member of the pair is assumed to be primary or fundamental, the other secondary or derivative.
What is the definition of deconstruction in encyclopedia?
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Deconstruction, form of philosophical and literary analysis, derived mainly from work begun in the 1960s by ...
What is the purpose of deconstructing opposition?
To “deconstruct” an opposition is to explore the tensions and contradictions between the hierarchical ordering assumed (and sometimes explicitly asserted) in the text and other aspects of the text’s meaning, especially those that are indirect or implicit or that rely on figurative or performative uses of language.
Is speech a form of language?
According to this opposition, speech is a more authentic form of language, because in speech the ideas and intentions of the speaker are immediately “present” (spoken words, in this idealized picture, directly express what the speaker “has in mind”), whereas in writing they are more remote or “absent” from the speaker or author and thus more liable to misunderstanding. As Derrida argues, however, spoken words function as linguistic signs only to the extent that they can be repeated in different contexts, in the absence of the speaker who originally utters them. Speech qualifies as language, in other words, only to the extent that it has characteristics traditionally assigned to writing, such as “absence,” “difference” (from the original context of utterance), and the possibility of misunderstanding. One indication of this fact, according to Derrida, is that descriptions of speech in Western philosophy often rely on examples and metaphors related to writing. In effect, these texts describe speech as a form of writing, even in cases where writing is explicitly claimed to be secondary to speech. As with the opposition between nature and culture, however, the point of the deconstructive analysis is not to show that the terms of the speech/writing opposition should be inverted—that writing is really prior to speech—nor is it to show that there are no differences between speech and writing. Rather, it is to displace the opposition so as to show that neither term is primary. For Derrida, speech and writing are both forms of a more generalized “arche-writing” ( archi-écriture ), which encompasses not only all of natural language but any system of representation whatsoever.
Is nature prior to culture?
For Rousseau, then, nature is prior to culture. Yet there is another sense in which culture is certainly prior to nature: the idea of nature is a product of culture, and what counts as “nature” or “natural” at any given historical moment will vary depending upon the culture of the time. What this fact shows is not that the terms of the nature/culture opposition should be inverted—that culture is really prior to nature—but rather that the relation between the terms is not one-sided and unidirectional, as Rousseau and others had assumed. The point of the deconstructive analysis is to restructure, or “displace,” the opposition, not simply to reverse it.
What is deconstructionist interpretation?
Deconstructionism is basically a theory of textual criticism or interpretation that denies there is any single correct meaning or interpretation of a passage or text. At the heart of the deconstructionist theory of interpretation are two primary ideas. First is the idea that no passage or text can possibly convey a single reliable, consistent, and coherent message to everyone who reads or hears it. The second is that the author who wrote the text is less responsible for the piece’s content than are the impersonal forces of culture such as language and the author’s unconscious ideology. Therefore the very basic tenets of deconstructionism are contrary to the clear teaching of the Bible that absolute truth does exist and we can indeed know it ( Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 65:16; John 1:17–18; John 14:6; John 15:26–27; Galatians 2:5 ).
What is the heart of postmodernism?
At the heart of postmodernism and deconstructionist thought is pride. The deconstructionist thinks that he can discover a personal or social motivation behind what Scripture says and therefore can determine what is “really being said.”. The result is a subjective interpretation of the passage in question. Instead of accepting what the Bible ...
What is the idea that no passage or text can possibly convey a single reliable, consistent, and coherent message to everyone?
The second is that the author who wrote the text is less responsible for the piece’s content than are the impersonal forces of culture such as language and the author’s unconscious ideology.
Is the deconstructionist approach to the Bible a logical fallacy?
The deconstructionist approach to interpreting the Bible comes out of postmodernism and is therefore simply another denial of the existence of absolute truth, which is one of the most serious logical fallacies anyone can commit. The denial of absolute truth is a logical fallacy because it is a self-contradictory statement.
Is deconstructionism absolute truth?
Therefore, according to the postmodern thinker, all truth is relative and there is no such thing as absolute truth.
Is a deconstructionist a right or wrong interpretation?
The deconstructionist is only limited in his interpretation of a passage by his own imagination. To the deconstructionist there is no right or wrong interpretation, and the meaning of the text becomes whatever the reader wants it to be.
Is endless circular reasoning self-defeating?
The endless circular reasoning is self-defeating. When one thinks about how fundamentally flawed this type of thinking is, one is reminded of 1 Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.’”.
What is the difference between deconstructionist and formalist?
Deconstructionists, by contrast, see works in terms of their undecidability. They reject the formalist view that a work of literature is demonstrably unified from beginning to end, in one certain way, or that it is organized around a single centre that ultimately can be identified. As a result, deconstructionists see texts as more radically heterogeneous than do formalists. Formalists ultimately make sense of the ambiguities they find in a given text, arguing that every ambiguity serves a definite, meaningful, and demonstrable literary function. Undecidability, by contrast, is never reduced, let alone mastered in deconsctruction. Though a deconstructive reading can reveal the incompatible possibilities generated by the text, it is impossible for the reader to settle on any permanent meanings.
What is the purpose of Derrida's deconstruction?
Through deconstruction, Derrida aims to erase the boundary between binary oppositions—and to do so in such a way that the hierarchy implied by the oppositions is thrown into question. Although its ultimate aim may be to criticize Western logic, deconstruction arose as a response to structuralism and formalism.
Is deconstruction a poststructuralist theory?
Though a deconstructive reading can reveal the incompatible possibilities generated by the text, it is impossible for the reader to settle on any permanent meanings. Deconstruction is a poststructuralist theory, based largely but not exclusively on the writings of Derrida. It is in the first instance a philosophical theory ...
Who said that the deconstructionists are not dismantling the structure of a text?
As J. Hillis Miller, the preeminent American deconstructionist, has explained in an essay entitled Stevens’ Rock and Criticism as Cure (1976), “Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock but thin air.”.
Who coined the term "deconstruction"?
Deconstruction was both created and has been profoundly influenced by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida, who coined the term deconstruction, argues that in Western culture, people tend to think and express their thoughts in terms of binary oppositions (white / black, masculine / feminine, cause /effect, conscious /unconscious, ...
What is the relevance of the tradition of negative theology to Derrida's preference for negative descriptions of deconstruction?
The relevance of the tradition of negative theology to Derrida's preference for negative descriptions of deconstruction is the notion that a positive description of deconstruction would over-determine the idea of deconstruction and would close off the openness that Derrida wishes to preserve for deconstruction.
Why is deconstruction not an analysis?
This is because the possibility of analysis is predicated on the possibility of breaking up the text being analysed into elemental component parts. Derrida argues that there are no self-sufficient units of meaning in a text, because individual words or sentences in a text can only be properly understood in terms of how they fit into the larger structure of the text and language itself. For more on Derrida's theory of meaning see the article on différance .
Why did Derrida use the term "deconstruction"?
Derrida initially resisted granting to his approach the overarching name "deconstruction", on the grounds that it was a precise technical term that could not be used to characterize his work generally. Nevertheless, he eventually accepted that the term had come into common use to refer to his textual approach, and Derrida himself increasingly began to use the term in this more general way.
What is the origin of the word "deconstruction"?
Derrida's original use of the word "deconstruction" was a translation of Destruktion, a concept from the work of Martin Heidegger that Derrida sought to apply to textual reading. Heidegger's term referred to a process of exploring the categories and concepts that tradition has imposed on a word, and the history behind them.
Why is Derrida careful to avoid this term?
Derrida is careful to avoid this term [method] because it carries connotations of a procedural form of judgement. A thinker with a method has already decided how to proceed, is unable to give him or herself up to the matter of thought in hand, is a functionary of the criteria which structure his or her conceptual gestures. For Derrida [...] this is irresponsibility itself. Thus, to talk of a method in relation to deconstruction, especially regarding its ethico-political implications, would appear to go directly against the current of Derrida's philosophical adventure.
Why did the founders of the Critical Legal Studies Movement argue that law and politics cannot be separated?
Arguing that law and politics cannot be separated, the founders of the "Critical Legal Studies Movement" found it necessary to criticize the absence of the recognition of this inseparability at the level of theory. To demonstrate the indeterminacy of legal doctrine, these scholars often adopt a method, such as structuralism in linguistics, or deconstruction in Continental philosophy, to make explicit the deep structure of categories and tensions at work in legal texts and talk. The aim was to deconstruct the tensions and procedures by which they are constructed, expressed, and deployed.
What is the meaning of deconstruction?
Deconstruction instead places the emphasis on appearance, or suggests, at least, that essence is to be found in appearance.
What do deconstructionists want?
Deconstructionists don't want to just reverse hierarchies. They want to blow up binary thinking altogether. So instead of thinking in terms of black and white, we have to consider infinite shades of gray along with every other color in existence. This way of thinking makes literature and culture more inclusive. Suddenly, no color is superior to any other.
What is the book "Catching Fire" about?
As a whole, the book is about the resistance centered around one brave young woman, Katniss Everdeen, against a domineering government.
What is a binary in deconstruction?
These unequal pairs, or binaries, are what deconstructionists would call violent hierarchies. In other words, they are forced situations in which one term, or person that term applies to, is automatically downgraded without any real reason.
Why is binary formation human nature?
This binary formation is human nature. It makes a ton of information easier to process. But if we never challenge these binaries, we never give people a chance, especially people who don't fit either part of a binary.
What does the frame of a building show?
Have you ever seen the scaffolding that goes up during the construction of a building? The frame shows what the building will look like, but that's not the only part. Shift your focus a little, and you'll see the spaces between the frame's 'bones.'
What is deconstruction in literature?
Deconstruction is a method of literary analysis that challenges our comfortable assumptions. This lesson will define deconstructionism, explain its background, and provide examples of deconstructionist readings. Create an account.
What does Collins set up in the fictional universe?
Also, Collins sets up a clear distinction between the rich citizens of the Capital and the much poorer tenants of the surrounding territories. In doing so, however, she's set up a rich or poor binary. What about the many classes in between? In Collins' fictional universe, they don't exist, which limits the options that the poor have to fight against the rich.
What is deconstructive criticism?
Post-Structuralist Criticism, Deconstructive criticism also explores patterns within texts, but deconstructive criticism aims to demonstrate how conflicting forces within the text undermine the stability of the text’s structure, revealing meaning as an array of undetermined possibilities. Deconstructive criticism may also focus on binaries in a text, such as good/evil, light/dark, male/female, poor/rich, linear/nonlinear, old/young, masculine/feminine, or natural/artificial, to expose one aspect of the binary as privileged and the other as suppressed. The discussion of deconstructionist criticism below will focus on the light/dark binary.
What is binary opposition?
a pair of related terms or concepts that appear to be opposite in meaning (e.g. light/dark, good/evil, masculine/feminine) the preferred term of a binary opposition; the term’s connotation usually creates its privileged status. the unfavorable term of a binary opposition; the term’s connotation usually creates its unfavorable status.
What is the term for a system in which ideas, objects, people, groups, and institutions are ranked one?
Hierarchies. a system in which ideas, objects, people, groups, and institutions are ranked one above the other according to privileged status or authority. Deconstruction, a theory that arose from post-structuralism, asserts that since systems are always changing, it is impossible to describe a complete system.
What is the theory of deconstruction?
Deconstruction is a type of theory that arose from post-structuralism, which asserts that since systems are always changing, it is impossible to describe a complete system , such as one that insists on the association of darkness with evil and vice versa.
What is a literary critic's research method?
a research method, a type of textual research, that literary critics use to interpret texts
Who is the originator of deconstruction?
The discussion of deconstructionist criticism below will focus on the light/dark binary. Jacques Derrida is the originator of deconstruction. As M.H. Abrams points out in A Glossary of Literary Terms, however, Derrida did not intend for deconstruction to serve as a method for writing literary criticism.
Is it possible to discover truth with a capital T?
Discovering Truth with a capital T is, therefore, an impossible task to carry out with deconstructive criticism. For example, a deconstructionist critic would ask how and why more importance is placed on light versus dark in a text, thereby questioning the truth of these associations within—and even outside of—the literary text.
What Is Christian Deconstruction?
Strictly speaking, Christian deconstruction is critiquing deeply held beliefs of one’s faith, particularly within evangelical circles. In popularity, Christian deconstruction requires untangling the ideas and practices keeping one’s faith together up to this point while also uncovering any unhealthy baggage.
Why Is The Christian Deconstruction Movement Happening?
Discounting the fact that a Christian deconstruction movement is happening is foolish. Although people wrestling with or walking away from faith is nothing new, the number of people whose religious affiliation is “nothing in particular” is rising.
Tools For Christian Deconstruction And Reconstructing Faith
Christian Deconstruction can be helpful with intentions to reform or rebuild one’s beliefs by challenging previous assumptions concerning your faith.
A Brief Story Of My Questions About Faith
I want to share a brief story from my own experience. When I was a young kid, my dad passed away. I was with him the night he got sick; we were driving home from practice. My mom took him to the hospital within the next day or so. He became ill in September and passed away in December the same year.
How To Hold Space For People That Are Deconstructing Their Faith
Is there room for Christians to deconstruct and for faith transition to occur? Hopefully.
