Deconstruction

Abstract

Deconstruction, the demonstration of multiple, competing, and often contradictory meanings within seemingly stable univocal positions, came to prominence in the mid-1960s and continues to exert a powerful influence across a broad range of disciplines. Although Jacques Derrida coined the term deconstruction in his early works, a history of deconstructive analysis can be traced to Friedrich W. Nietzsche and beyond, connecting with Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl along the way. Deconstructive analysis, as practiced by Derrida, demonstrates that the substance and coherence of a text—broadly conceived from the traditional notion of a written text to social practice—is as much related to assumptions and derivative ideas that are excluded, as it is to those that that are included. In other words, meaning is inextricably linked to the constitutive other—silences and exclusions—of the text. Deconstruction aims to render the constitutive other explicit. The exposure of silences and exclusions, together with the contradictions that may ensue, draws sites for activism into clear relief.