Deconstruction: A school of philosophy that originated in France in the
late
1960s, has had an enormous impact on Anglo-American criticism. Largely
the
creation of its chief proponent Jacques Derrida, deconstruction upends
the
Western metaphysical tradition. It represents a complex response to a variety
of
theoretical and philosophical movements of the 20th century, most notably
Husserlian phenomenology, Saussurean and French structuralism, and Freudian
and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
[First paragraph of a seven-page explanation in the Encyclopedia of
Contemporary Literary Theory (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).]
Deconstruction: The term denotes a particular kind of practice in reading
and,
thereby, a method of criticism and mode of analytical inquiry. In her book
The
Critical Difference (1981), Barbara Johnson clarifies the term:
"Deconstruction is not synonymous with "destruction", however. It is in
fact
much closer to the original meaning of the word 'analysis' itself, which
etymologically means "to undo" -- a virtual synonym for "to de-construct."
... If
anything is destroyed in a deconstructive reading, it is not the text,
but the claim to
unequivocal domination of one mode of signifying over another. A deconstructive
reading is a reading which analyses the specificity of a text's critical
difference from
itself."
[First paragraph of a four-page definition of the term deconstruction
in J.A.
Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, third ed. (London:
Blackwell, 1991)].
Deconstruction: School of philosophy and literary criticism forged in the
writings
of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and the Belgium/North American
literary
critic Paul De Man. Deconstruction can perhaps best be described as a theory
of
reading which aims to undermine the logic of opposition within texts.
[Start of a four-page definition of deconstruction in A Dictionary of Critical
Theory (London: Blackwell, 1996).]
http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/derrida/deconstruction.html