LITERARY
THEORY:
DECONSTRUCTION
Sylvia Plath
Mirror
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike
I am not cruel, only truthful –
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Source: http://hurd.gnufans.org/~ilse/lit/plath.htm
Literary Theory: Deconstruction
To
begin with, “Jacques Derrida coined the
term “Deconstruction” and it is used in contemporary humanities and social
sciences to denote a philosophy of meaning that deals with the ways that
meaning is constructed by writers, texts and readers”. (1.Wikipedia,
Deconstruction)
“This theory works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which is the critic’s task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single centre, essence or meaning” (2. Siegel, Dr. Kristi).
Furthermore, according to John Lye;
“Deconstruction is a poststructuralist
theory and it defends that there is no unmediated knowledge of “reality”:
knowledge is symbolic: what we know are signs; signs gain their meaning from
their discussion from other-signs” (3. John Lye. Contemporary
Literary theory).
In order to understand this better,
deconstruction is opposed to structuralism. Firstly, it would be
necessary to mention some natural properties of structuralism. This is a theory
that claims that all texts work as an organic model, that is, each text has
only one meaning. (4. Peterson, Linda H).
However,
deconstructive critics established that in Western it is thought of terms of
binary oppositions. According to these critics, words (in general) do not have
only a single meaning, whereas they have a meaning related to other words
(context). In these binary oppositions there is always a term that is viewed as
positive and other that is viewed as negative (for example “light and shadow”).
(4. Peterson, Linda H).
Structuralists critics interpreted some texts according to a single
vision, providing a positive value of the term that in Western (this term) is
considered positive. However, deconstructive critics do not consider the text
as an organic model, whereas they consider it as an organism in which there can
be a sense multiplicity. (4. Peterson, Linda H).
Taking
into account the concept of binary oppositions, deconstructive critics
established that if people provide a positive value to a term which is commonly
viewed as negative, the sense of the text can be contradictory to that
interpretation given by structuralists critics. (4. Peterson, Linda H).
The
personalities who studied this literary theory are: Jacques Derrida, Michel
Foucault, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Helene Cixous, Paul de Man, J.
Hillis Miller, Jacques Lacan and Barbara Johnson (2.
Siegel, Dr. Kristi).
Different concepts used in
deconstructive theory.
“Différance - a
combination of the meanings in the word
différance. The concept means 1) différer or to differ, 2)
différance which means to delay or postpone (defer), and 3) the idea of
difference itself. To oversimplify, words are always at a distance from what
they signify and, to make matters worse, must be described by using other words.” (2.
Siegel, Dr. Kristi).
“Logocentrism - term associated with Derrida that
"refers to the nature of western thought, language and culture since
Plato's era. The Greek signifier for "word," "speech," and
"reason," logos possesses connotations in western culture for law and
truth. Hence, logocentrism refers to a culture that revolves around a central
set of supposedly universal principles or beliefs" (Wolfreys 302 - see General Resources below)”.(2.
Siegel,
Dr. Kristi).
“Opposition: Jacques Derrida suggested that in the West we think
in terms of these “binary oppositions” or dichotomies, which on examination
turn out to be evaluative hierarchies. In other words, each opposition
(beginning / end) contains one term that our culture view as superior and one
term that we view as negative or inferior”. (4.
Peterson, Linda H)
Now, I am going to analyse the poem
“The Mirror” written by Sylvia Plath and then, we are going to see a
deconstructive approach to this poem written by Farzaneh Bolourieh.
In
this poem, Sylvia Plath is dealing with the relationship between reality, the
truth and the people’s feelings and their thoughts about their appearances.
To
begin with, “The mirror” is divided into two stanzas, each one with nine lines.
In the first stanza, as the title of the poem introduces
to us, the mirror is
being described as an object that shows reality and truth, “I am silver and
exact” (line 1). This object expresses its qualities talking in first person;
“I have no preconceptions” (line 1) and “I am not cruel, only truthful” (line
4).
In the second stanza, the mirror
continues talking about itself; but now, instead of being the typical glass
mirror, it is a lake. And a woman is looking
at it. But she is damaged because
her reflected image is not that she wanted to admire. Thus, the mirror
recognises that “It is important to her” (line 15) and it concludes that “in
him she has drowned a young girl, and in him an old woman rises towards her day
after day” (line 16 - 17). But at the end, the mirror expresses its woman’s
opinion calling her a terrible fish (line 17).
According to
Farzaneh Bolourieh in her study “a deconstructive approach to the Mirror”, the
poem “The mirror” can be understood in both ways, through a literal meaning or
through a connotative meaning. (5. Bolourieh, Farzaneh).
Farzaneh Bolourieh states that the
fact “that the woman does not like her
appearance but the mirror is not cruel in its reflection and is just depicting
the reality so it is the woman who is not submitting to reality and faces
flatteres” is the literal meaning. And the fact that “the mirror is the symbol of those who reveal the
truth though it might be bitter and dark, and the woman symbolizes those who
are not able to accept the reality and accuse such honest people as cruel and
rather move towards the liars for comfort” is the connotative
meaning. (5. Bolourieh, Farzaneh).
To
conclude, through a deconstructive approach we can freely analyse each element
of the poem and search for a hidden meaning. As many poems written by Sylvia
Plath, the Mirror can reflect Sylvia’s personality and thoughts. So, many
people think that this poem has different meanings and its interpretation
depends on the readers´ thoughts; a subjective interpretation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Wikipedia, “Deconstruction - Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia”. This page was last modified 23 May 2006, I consulted it 24
may 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction
2.
Siegel, Dr. Kristi (Associate Professor, English Dept. Chair - Languages,
Literature, and Communication Division).
“Introduction to Modern Literary Theory”. This page was last modified January 2006, I
consulted it 24 May 2006.
http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm
3. John Lye,
“Deconstruction: some assumptions”. ENGL 4F70, Contemporary
Literary Theory,
Last updated on November 3. 1997 by
Professor John Lye. I consulted it 24 May 2006.
http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/deconstruction.html
4. (Editor) Peterson, Linda H. “
(Term
opposition and Structuralism) “Glossary of critical and
theoretical terms” pag. 459.
(Deconstruction
text) “What is deconstruction?” from page 359 to 367.
5. Bolourieh, Farzaneh. "A
Deconstructive Approach to the "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath."
EzineArticles 03
April 2006. 24 May 2006 <http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Deconstructive-Approach-to-the-Mirror-by-Sylvia-Plath&id=171810>.
|
Reading module 10: Deconstruction |
Academic year 2006 (May 2006)
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana Mª Pardillos Murillo
Universitat de València Press
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