Teacher's Day Celebration, Department of English, MKBU.

1. Khushbu Lakhupota
MA Semester 3
Teacher’s Day Celebration
Department of English
M. K. Bhavnagar University

2. What is Post-Structuralism?
▪ Often considered to begin with, originate from, or equated with Derrida’s
paper “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”
(1966) presented at the Johns Hopkins University.
▪ A critique of Saussure’s concept of the ‘sign’ (divisible into ‘signifier’
[the verbal, written, and/or visual marks] and ‘signified’ [the mental
concept/idea/meaning evoked by the signifier]).
▪ A critique of the belief in singular and extractable meaning
[Transcendental Signified] from [a] text(s) [New Criticism – Close
Reading] / A celebration of the plurality or ‘free play’ of signifieds or
meaning [William Empson’s Ambiguities (1930)].

3. What is Post-Structuralism?
▪ A critique of ‘centers’ that are simultaneously and paradoxically both within
and outside the structure – that is, they limit ‘free play’ within the structure
but are themselves beyond regulation [for example: God, man, language,
politicians, Prospero in The Tempest (1610-11)]
▪ A critique of binary oppositions in which the first entity is privileged or in a
position of power whereas the second entity is weak, lacks agency and is
therefore oppressed, exploited. Thus, binaries should be dismantled. For
example: [Bourgeoisie/Proletariat [Class; Capitalism]; Male/Female or
Man/Woman [Gender; Feminism]; Straight/LGBTQ [Sexuality]; White/Black
[Race], etc.] What is Post-Structuralism?

4. What is Post-Structuralism?
▪ A celebration of interpretations over extraction of meaning [signified]:
“the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”
(Barthes 168).
▪ A celebration of Intertextuality / A critique of or dismantling the notion
of [Romantic] Originality.

5. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
Derrida, the first Post-Structuralist?
● Karl Marx [1818 – 1883] (Social Post-Structuralist)
● Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) (Theological Post-Structuralist)
● Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) (Psychological Post-Structuralist)

6. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
The Shaky Grounds of Language
▪ John wrote a poem on the mountains.
▪ The bark was painful.
▪ The fisherman went to the bank.

7. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
● Derrida’s critique is directed at:
● Metaphysics of Presence (Heidegger) and Logocentrism (logos)
● The belief in a Transcendental Signified
● Rather, language often leads to aporia [moment(s) of hesitation or
undecidability]. In other words, language betrays itself. (Abrams and
Harpham 80-83)

8. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
▪ Meaning can neither be said to be present or absent; rather there is only a
‘trace’ or free ‘play’ of meaning(s)/signified(s). For instance, Robert Frost’s
“The Road Not Taken” (1916):
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. (Frost 131, emphasis added)

9. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
● Derrida’s portmanteau term
Différance = Différer (to be different) + defer (to delay, to push back
[meaning/signifieds]) (Abrams and Harpham 82)

10. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
“The center is not the center” (Derrida 108).
A history of substituting one center for another. (108)
▪ The center is simultaneously at the center of the structure [it governs
the structure and limits free ‘play’] while also being outside of the
structure [no rules apply to it] (108).
▪ For example: God; monarchs [politicians]; technology [?]

11. Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction
Binary Oppositions
White / Black [Racism]. For instance,
▪ Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” [from Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)]
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?