Literary Theory

Series 1: Handout #11

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004): Algerian Jew, outsider to French mainstream; struggled with Saint Augustine’s theistic certainties; figure most associated with “Deconstruction”; what can you say about him based on the video?

The literal meaning of “Deconstruction.”

Not a philosophy, but a meta-philosophy and post-philosophy.

The Deconstructive Pose: Nothing is “Authentic”; all experience comes at second-hand and can only be enjoyed with knowing irony, so don’t be a square, Daddy-O. Also resists precision in naming: everything is “like” something; everything we experience is, like, built up on dead metaphors that support lies. Everything is a bunch of trash (the high and the low culture), but, like, it’s all we’ve got, dude. Cause there ain’t no there there, no logos, dig? And “meaning,” whatever that is, is always already deferred.

So, is that fun or scary? What’s the difference? If you “love,” are you a fool or a knave? Or does the Deconstructive critique simply straighten the bent stick?

Of Grammatology (1967): “There is nothing outside of the text” (1825). He also notes, in particular, how the critic is always inside the discursive structure of his criticism. There is no objective position.

Return to Handout #9 for method overview: Time for textual analysis? “Gettysburg Address”?