Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a strategy of reading and textual analysis developed by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (in 'Of Grammatology' and 'Writing and Difference,' 1967). Deconstruction reveals a text's internal contradictions, hidden hierarchies, and binary oppositions (speech/writing, presence/absence, center/periphery), showing their instability and mutual reversibility. Derrida's key concepts are 'différance,' the 'trace,' the 'dissemination of meaning,' and the critique of 'logocentrism' and the 'metaphysics of presence.' Deconstruction denies the idea of a final, 'correct' meaning of a text, asserting the fundamental plurality of readings. In literary studies it became the basis of the Yale school of criticism (Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, Harold Bloom). Deconstruction influenced poststructuralism, postmodern theory, and postcolonial studies, altering the very conception of the nature of the text.