deconstructionists
Text-undermining literary theorists
Deconstructionists are scholars, critics, or thinkers who practice deconstruction, a method of textual analysis associated with philosopher Jacques Derrida.
They examine how language and meaning are inherently unstable, revealing contradictions and hidden assumptions within texts.
The term appears most often in literary criticism and philosophy, though it sometimes gets used dismissively to characterize anyone perceived as overcomplicating straightforward ideas.
The deconstructionists argued that the novel undermined its own apparent message.
Grammatology's French author
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- supplementSomething added to complete
- disseminationWide distribution of information
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
signified · phallogocentrism · freeplay · indeterminacy · decentering · poststructuralism
Weakening by covert means
- destabilizationCausing loss of stability
- disruptionForceful interruption of process
- challengeTest of ability
- critiqueDetailed evaluative analysis
questioning · dismantling · unraveling · problematizing · skepticism · transgression · defiance · iconoclasm
Analyzing and evaluating fiction
- legal studiesAcademic examination of law
- architectureBuilding design discipline
- theologyStudy of the divine
- feminist theoryScholarly analysis of patriarchy
queer theory · critical theory · aesthetics · ethics · political theory
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- contradictionsLogically incompatible assertions
- marginsEdges of a page
- footnotesMarginal citations below text
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- supplementSomething added to complete
- disseminationWide distribution of information
signifier · signified · phallogocentrism · freeplay · indeterminacy · decentering · poststructuralism
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
undermining
Weakening by covert means
- destabilizationCausing loss of stability
- disruptionForceful interruption of process
- challengeTest of ability
critique · questioning · dismantling · unraveling · problematizing · skepticism · transgression · defiance · iconoclasm · anti-foundationalism
literary criticism
Analyzing and evaluating fiction
- legal studiesAcademic examination of law
- architectureBuilding design discipline
- theologyStudy of the divine
feminist theory · queer theory · critical theory · aesthetics · ethics · political theory
close reading
Detailed textual analysis
- textual analysisSystematic examination of writing
- contradictionsLogically incompatible assertions
- marginsEdges of a page
footnotes · rhetorical strategies · recontextualization · critique
deconstructioniststraditionalists
Upholders of established customs
formalists · structuralists · literalists · philologists · originalists
deconstructionistsessentialists
Believers in fixed natures
objectivists · metaphysicians · realists · absolutists · Platonists
deconstructioniststraditionalists
Upholders of established customs
essentialists · conservatives · canonists · preservationists · classicists