This document discusses the concept of deconstruction as developed by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It notes that deconstruction involves a close reading of texts to reveal contradictory meanings. Derrida argued that Western thought relies on binary oppositions like good/evil, but that these hierarchies can be dismantled. Through deconstruction, he aimed to erase the boundaries between such pairs and show that texts contain multiple meanings. The document provides examples of how analyzing language and passages intensely can expose a text's "multiplicities of meaning."

2. Presented by
Aleena Varghese
3rd DC English Literature
Roll No : 393

3. Deconstruction
• Close reading of texts to
demonstrate that any
text possess
contradictory meanings.
• French philosopher ,
Jacques Derrida -
founder of this school of
criticism.

4. BINARY OPPOSITION
 Derrida argues that in western
culture ,people tend to think
and express their thoughts in
terms of binary oppositions.
 For eg. white / black, masculine
/ feminine, cause / effect,
presence / absence, etc.

5. 1.These oppositions
are hierarchies in
miniature .
3.Through
deconstruction,
Derrida aims to
erase the boundary
2.Containing one
term thatWestern
culture views as
superior and another
inferior.
Between binary
oppositions and
the hierarchy
implied is thrown
into dust.

6.  The potential deconstruction of a text is
already within the text and no system of
interpretation external to that text (eg.
Psychoanalytic,historical,biographical) is
necessary.
 They seek to show that the text is
characterised by disunity rather than unity.

7.  “ 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 “. –J.Hillis Miller

8. The Deconstructive Method
Deconstructionists read the text
against itself to expose what
might be thought as ‘textual
subconscious’.
They look for shifts and breaks of
various kinds in the text and see
these as evidence of what is
repressed or passed over in silence by
the text.
They concentrate on
a single passage and
analyze it so
intensively – it
becomes impossible
to sustain a
‘univocal’reading and
the language
explodes into
‘multiplicities of
meaning’.

9.  Robert Frost’s ‘MendingWall’ analyzes the
binary opposition between non conformity
and tradition, the disagreement between the
speaker and his neighbour.
 ‘MendingWall’ deconstructs itself.The unity
of the poem is literally blown up.