What is Deconstructionism?

A term tied very closely to postmodernism , deconstructionism is a challenge to the attempt to establish any ultimate or secure meaning in a text. Basing itself in language analysis, it seeks to "deconstruct" the ideological biases (gender, racial, economic, political, cultural) and traditional assumptions that infect all histories, as well as philosophical and religious "truths." Deconstructionism is based on the premise that much of human history, in trying to understand, and then define, reality has led to various forms of domination - of nature, of people of color, of the poor, of homosexuals, etc. Like postmodernism, deconstructionism finds concrete experience more valid than abstract ideas and, therefore, refutes any attempts to produce a history, or a truth.

Deconstructionism is basically a theory of textual criticism or interpretation that denies that there is any single correct meaning or interpretation of a passage or text. There are two primary ideas for interpretation for the deconstructionism theory. 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 reader and thier beliefs are. Like other philosophies that come out of the postmodern movement, deconstructionism celebrates human autonomy and places the autonomy of man at both the beginning and the end of determining what can be deemed to be true. Therefore according to the postmodern thinker all truth is relative and there is no such thing as absolute truth. Deconstructionism claims that texts have no meaning. The reader is the one that creates the meaning of the text.

About the Theory | Vocabulary | Literary Examples | References |