Post-structuralism & Deconstruction Week 5

“Decentered universe” Is your train or the other one moving..? “Fixed intellectual reference points are removed by properly taking on board what structuralists said about language…”

Post-structuralism Emerged in France in the late 1960s. Roland Barthes & Jacques Derrida are pioneers. Applied form: deconstruction Deconstruction looks at the smaller parts that were used to create an object. The smaller parts are usually ideas. Sometimes deconstruction looks at how an author can imply things he does not mean. It says that because words are not precise, we can never know what an author meant. Sometimes deconstruction looks at the things the author did not say because he made assumptions.

Origins: Unlike structuralism which derives originally from linguistics, post-structuralism derives from philosophy. Post-structuralism adopts the habit of scepticism and even intensifies it. Any confidence in scientific method is regarded naive. It is certain that we can’t know anything for certain.

Tone and style: Structuralist writing uses more abstraction and generalization: aims for a detached, scientific coolness of tone. The style is neutral and anonymous. Post-structuralist writing tends to be much more emotive. The tone is urgent and euphoric, and the style is flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Puns are used in titles and in the central line of argument. Deconstructive writing fixes on some materials aspects of language such as a metaphor or etymology of a word.

Attitude to language: Structuralists: The world is constructed through language; we don’t have access to reality other than through the linguistic medium. Post-structuralists: Reality itself is textual. The verbal sign is constantly floating free of the concept it is supposed to designate. Meanings are fluid and subject to constant slippage. Meanings cannot be planted in set places since we do not have full control of the medium of language. Meanings (words) are contaminated by their opposites.

Project (Aims) Post-structuralism distrusts the very notion of reason, and the human being as an independent entity, preferring the notion of the “dissolved” or “constructed” subject.

Post-structuralism POSTMODERN LITERARY THEORY n Not a unified school: A group of theoretical positions n Self-reflexive discourse that is “aware of the tentativeness, slipperiness, ambiguities and complex interrelations between texts and meanings.” (Lye) n Rejects: F Totalizing viewAll phenomenon under one concept F Essentialist conceptReality independent of language F FoundationalismStable signifying systems rooted in human thought

Post-structuralism All Truths Are Cultural STRUCTURALISM n The individual is sacred n The mind as the realm of meaning n Universal laws and essences n Inherent universal meanings that precede the text POSTSTRUCTURALISM n The “subject” is a cultural construct n Mind created from interactions as situated symbolic beings n Truth is “local”; language creates reality n Meaning is intertextual, determined by social discourse; changes with history

Post-structuralism n Meanings are often hidden in the texts n Real meaning can be unlocked by deconstructing the text n Must consider psychological, cultural, ideological, gender and other “power positions” of author, characters, intended readers n Words are an endless chain of signifiers, pointing to nothing but themselves

More Post-Structuralism DECONSTRUCTIONISTS: Look at binary opposites (good/bad, male/female, happy/unhappy, day/night) and challenge it Looks for problems with this type of pattern: for example, how can Hansel and Gretel live happily ever after with a father who sent them away?? They ask “says who”; they challenge the status quo Good because each reader makes meaning, based on his or her experience and beliefs Criticized by some for “just playing with ideas” and for rejecting accepted theories and for being more concerned with “mechanics” than the story

DECONSTRUCTION Deconstructionists are critics who probe beneath the finished surface of a story. Having been written by a human being with unresolved conflicts and contradictory emotions, a story may disguise rather than reveal the underlying anxieties or perplexities of the author. The story may have one meaning for the ordinary unsophisticated reader and another for the reader who responds to the subsurface ironies.

DECONSTRUCTION Focuses on contradictions in art Unravels binaries – shows they are unstable Explores unintended meanings in metaphors Explores instabilities in language

Everyday Deconstruction Your lives as teenagers/young adults are chaotic You naturally, every day, try to uncover oppositions and meanings in things Your minds are not rigidly set upon fixed meanings You accept ambiguity because you are not often given the whole truth You are transitioning from childhood to adulthood and are constructing your own identity

Dismantling Binaries Rich and poor Sun and moon Day and night Masculine and feminine Reason and emotion Life and death The positive or privileged term is usually, but not always first – it is the standard that all else is compared to – it is the positive concept, while all else is negative. One word is always privileged over the other. Remember the “To Be or Not to Be” speech?

Dismantling binaries Deconstruction seeks to take apart this binary thinking and prove it is false, that texts are more like eastern philosophy – containing shades of colours. One of the first things you do when deconstructing a text is look for the binaries that the author sets up. Then look for ways that author turns these binaries “upside down.” Prove that one binary is not better than another or that both concepts are necessary for the other’s existence.

Exploring metaphors Another tool for deconstructing art is to look at any metaphors and figures of speech present. Identify their intended meaning Identify any unintended meanings

“Love is a rose” Intended meaning is…. Unintended meaning is… “You are the sunshine of my life” Intended is… Unintended is….

Post-structuralist critics… Read the text against itself to expose textual subconscious where the meanings may directly contradict with the surface meaning. Fix upon surface features of the words – similarities in sound, the root meanings of words a “dead” (or dying) metaphor. Seek to show that the text is shaped by disunity. Focuses on a single passage and analyze it intensively. Look for shifts and breaks of various kinds to find evidence for the repressed or passed over in silence by the text.

Steps of deconstruction 1. Upon first reading, write a brief summary of what MOST people would say about the work. 2. Identify binaries in a chart 3. Identify metaphors (intended and unintended meanings) 4. Look for any words that might have two meanings 5. Look for contradictions (does something not make sense?) 6. Then write about how the work shakes these things up!

Practical Differences btw Structuralism & Post-structuralism Parallels/echoes Balances Viewpoint - Attitude Tense – Time – Person Reflections/repetitions Symmetry Contradictions/paradoxes Shift/breaks in tune Conflicts Absences/omissions

Contrasts Patterns Textual unity Linguistic quirks Aporia Textual disunity Practical Differences btw Structuralism & Post-structuralism

3-stage model of deconstructive process: Page 95 – in the course pack… Read and analyze the sample deconstruction exercise (Frankenstein)