deconstructionist
Text structure skeptic
A deconstructionist is someone who practices or advocates deconstruction—a method of critical analysis that questions the stability of meaning in texts, revealing hidden contradictions and assumptions.
The term is associated with the philosophy of Jacques Derrida.
As an adjective, deconstructionist describes this approach: a deconstructionist reading of the novel.
Grammatology's French author
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
phallogocentrism · presence · absence · play · decentering
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- structuralismAnalysis through underlying systems
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
- phenomenologyStudy of subjective experience
critical theory · postmodernism · Foucault · Lacan · Butler · anti-foundationalism · relativism
Connections between written works
- reader-responseCriticism emphasizing audience interpretation
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- polysemyWord having related meanings
slippage · meaning · interpretation · subtext · discourse · text · writing · signification
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- destabilizingCausing loss of equilibrium
- dismantlingTaking apart systematically
- interrogatingFormally demanding answers
unraveling · critique · demystification · problematizing · unpacking
Seeking answers through inquiry
- destabilizingCausing loss of equilibrium
- underminingWeakening by covert means
- challengingHard to accomplish
- subversiveSeeking to undermine authority
contrarian · suspicious · incredulity · doubt · critique · problematizing · unsettling · disrupting
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
dissemination · phallogocentrism · presence · absence · play · decentering
poststructuralism
Philosophy questioning stable meaning
- structuralismAnalysis through underlying systems
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
phenomenology · critical theory · postmodernism · Foucault · Lacan · Butler · anti-foundationalism · relativism
intertextuality
Connections between written works
- reader-responseCriticism emphasizing audience interpretation
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
polysemy · slippage · meaning · interpretation · subtext · discourse · text · writing · signification · literary criticism
close reading
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- destabilizingCausing loss of equilibrium
- dismantlingTaking apart systematically
interrogating · unraveling · critique · demystification · problematizing · unpacking
questioning
Seeking answers through inquiry
- destabilizingCausing loss of equilibrium
- underminingWeakening by covert means
- challengingHard to accomplish
subversive · contrarian · suspicious · incredulity · doubt · critique · problematizing · unsettling · disrupting
- Literary Criticsbook reviewer, essayist, scholar, analyst, commentator
- scholarsscholar, professors, professor, researcher, researchers
- thinkersthinkers, thinker, philosophers, philosopher, Aristotle
- literary scholarsscholar, critic, literary critics, professor, philologists
- ideologiescapitalism, communism, conservatism, liberalism, socialism
- philosophical termsSocratic, Kantian, Cartesian, Aristotelian, dialectical
deconstructionistformalist
One emphasizing prescribed conventions
textualist · structuralist · literalist · originalist · close reader
deconstructionistPlatonist
Follower of Athenian philosopher
essentialist · metaphysician · objectivist · absolutist · systematizer
deconstructionisttraditionalist
Adherent to established customs
classicist · preservationist · conventionalist · establishmentarian