1. Post- Structuralist

2. A Review of Structuralism
Language is primary means of signification
Signification is how we achieve meaning through linguistic signs and other symbols
Language comprises its own rule-governed system to achieve meaning
Language is not the only sign system
Act of reading is a cultural and social practice that contains its own codes
Meaning in a text resides in these codes

3. Structuralism, continued
Reader has mastered codes before he/she ever picks up the text
Proper study of literature is inquiry into conditions surrounding the act of interpretation itself, not the investigation of the text
Structuralists seek to discover the overall system (langue) that accounts for the individual interpretation (parole)

4. Deconstruction
A method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language that emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression.

5. DECONSTRUCTION
Challenges structuralist assumptions that a text’s meaning can be discovered through and examination of its structural codes.
Operates under the maxim of undecidability
Asks a new set of questions to show that what a text claims it says and what it actually says are different

6. DECONSTRUCTION
Casts doubts on previously held theories that sought to find meaning(s) in a text
Declares that a text has an almost infinite number of possible interpretations
Some assert that interpretations are as creative and important as the text

7. Example
One can deconstruct a privileging in several different ways. For example, one can explore how the reasons for privileging A over B also apply to B, or how the reasons for B's subordinate status apply to A in unexpected ways. One may also consider how A depends upon B, or is actually a special case of B. The goal of these exercises is to achieve a new understanding of the relationship between A and B, which, to be sure, is always subject to further deconstruction.

8. Deconstruction: a new reading strategy
Discover binary oppositions that govern a text
Comment on values, concepts, ideas beyond the binaries
Reverse these binaries
Dismantle previously held worldviews
Accept possibilities of various perspectives or levels of meaning
Allow meaning to be undecidable

9. (constructing means to build) Deconstructing means to take apart
Deconstructing a Poem
(constructing means to build)
Deconstructing means to take apart
How do I do that?
To deconstruct a poem:
1. Read it
2. Take it apart
3. Understand what you need to do
4. Determine how to analyze the poem properly
National RtI Writing Demonstration Project

10. Terms
Signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.
Signified: the concept that a signifier refers to.
Together, the signifier and signified make up the
Sign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie).

11. Symbolic (arbitrary) signs: signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and culturally specific, e.g., most words.
Iconic signs: signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture.
Indexical Signs: signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire.

12. Ferdinand Saussure Linguistic SIGN (word)
SIGNIFIER (spoken sound or written symbol)
SIGNIFIED (concept signaled by signifier)

13. Linguistic Sign
Is defined by differences that distinguish if from other signs

14. SIGNIFIER SPOKEN OR WRITTEN FORM Read this word: FIRE
Say this word: FIRE

15. SIGNIFIED: concept or thing

16. SIGNIFIED: concept or thing

17. Fire?????????

18. Arbitrary. . .

19. Sign Is Arbitrary Key Eye Note Lie Guys Honey Home Post Book Girls
Baby
Heart

20. DERRIDA AND SAUSSURE
Derrida affirms concept of language system based on difference
Derrida asserts that the signified can also only be known through relationships

21. I filled the glass with milk.
Glass is signifier of the signified concept of a container to hold the milk
HOWEVER, IN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE. . .

22. The container was filled with glass.
Spoken or written “container” was signified in previous sentence, but
Now is the signifier
Its signified the concept of an object that can be filled
Notice the changing use of the word GLASS

28. Western metaphysics invents a variety of terms to function as centers
LOGOCENTRISM:
Western desire to find a center and its belief in ultimate reality or center of truth to serve as basis for all thoughts and actions
Western metaphysics invents a variety of terms to function as centers
Each can operate as a concept that is self-sufficient and self-originating
Thus serving as transcendental signified

29. Important Terms to Know
Modernism
Postructuralism
Postmodernism
Deconstruction
Signification
Langue
Parole
Mimetic
Phonology
Grammar
Syntax
Signifier
Signified
Sign
Transcendental Signified
Logocentrism
Binary Oppositions
Privileged
Unprivileged

30. TERMS, continued Phonocentrism Metaphysics of presence Supplementation
Differance

31. MODERNITY Human ability to reason and to grasp truth (Enlightenment)
Undoubtable truths supplied by mathematics
Science can lead the way to complete understanding of the physical world

32. MODERNITY Power and strength of individual mind
Truth is to be discovered scientifically
Texts possess some objective knowable existence that may be analyzed

33. POSTMODERNISM Challenges modernity’s view of world
No objective reality
All definitions of truth are subjective
Truth is relative
Map of meaning replaced with metaphor of collage
Reality is human construct
Meaning is provisional
Decline of influence of religious systems