deconstruction
Revealing inherent contradictions
Deconstruction is a method of critical analysis that examines how texts undermine their own assumptions and apparent meanings.
Associated with philosopher Jacques Derrida, it probes the instabilities in language and logic that traditional interpretation overlooks.
More loosely, deconstruction means taking something apart to examine its components: a deconstruction of the superhero genre, Let's do a deconstruction of what went wrong.
The informal sense has largely overtaken the technical one.
Grammatology's French author
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
phallogocentrism · decentering · metaphysics · presence · absence · play · margin · closure
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
power · ideology · representation · hegemony · simulacrum · hyperreality · rhizome · bricolage
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- narrativeAccount of events
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- subtextImplicit meaning beneath words
interpretation · critique · canon · authorship · meaning · ambiguity · irony · allegory
Secretly weaken authority
- undermineWeaken by stealth
- challengeTest of ability
- destabilizeMake unsteady or insecure
- disruptInterrupt and disorder
interrogate · problematize · unsettle · expose · reveal · question · resist · transgress
Breaking into smaller pieces
- non-linearNot in order
- angularSharp-edged or rawboned
- asymmetryAbsence of balanced form
- façadeFalse outward appearance
form · Bilbao · disjointed · unconventional
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
dissemination · phallogocentrism · decentering · metaphysics · presence · absence · play · margin · closure
poststructuralism
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
discourse · power · ideology · representation · hegemony · simulacrum · hyperreality · rhizome · bricolage · pastiche
close reading
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- narrativeAccount of events
- intertextualityConnections between written works
subtext · interpretation · critique · canon · authorship · meaning · ambiguity · irony · allegory · rhetoric
subvert
Secretly weaken authority
- undermineWeaken by stealth
- challengeTest of ability
- destabilizeMake unsteady or insecure
disrupt · interrogate · problematize · unsettle · expose · reveal · question · resist · transgress · complicate
fragmentation
Breaking into smaller pieces
- non-linearNot in order
- angularSharp-edged or rawboned
- asymmetryAbsence of balanced form
façade · form · Bilbao · disjointed · unconventional
unpack
Remove contents from container
analyze · disentangle · unravel · separate · extract · identify · expose · reveal · scrutinize · interpret
- analysisanalyze, analysis, evaluate, data analysis, examine
- demolitiondemolish, raze, bulldoze, controlled demolition, wreck
- humanitiesphilosophy, history, literature, philosophy class, novels
- interpretationinterpretive dance, translation, interpreting, translating, construing
- anthropologyanthropology, fieldwork, ethnography, social anthropology, cultural anthropology
- contemporary artconceptual art, contemporary art, digital art, contemporary artists, modern art
deconstructionconstruction
Process of building something
synthesis · building · integration · unification · assembly
deconstructionliteral interpretation
Taking words at face value
essentialism · foundationalism · plain meaning · originalism · New Criticism
deconstructionfoundationalism
Knowledge rests on basics
essentialism · structuralism · positivism · rationalism · dogmatism
deconstructing, deconstructionist, deconstructive, deconstructions, deconstructionism