An Introduction to Deconstruction: Deconstruction: Structure sign and play in the discourse of the human sciences Lison Joseph Mob: 9946138576
The essay “Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of the human Scienc Sciences” es” was a paper paper contri contribut buted ed to a confere conference nce held held at Johns Johns Hopkin Hopkinss University in 1966. Derrida has in this paper attacked the systematic, quasiscientific pretensions of the strict form of structuralism that is originated with Saussure’s concept of the structure of the language, and later represented by the cultur cultural al anthro anthropol polog ogist ist,, Levi-S Levi-Stra trauss uss.. Derrid Derrida’s a’s paper paper attemp attempts ts to subver subvertt classical structuralism as well as traditional humanism and empiricism.
Deconstruction has its origin in Derrida’s assertion in this paper that language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique. Deconstructive criticism based on this assertion, attempts to show that no text has a determinate meaning,
or
the
text
itself
subverts
the
possibility
of
determin minate
communication and the reader can have his meaning out of the text. This paper
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may be considered the manifesto of post structuralism and of the indeterminacy of meaning and the idea of free play.
Structurality of structure
Derrida’s essay begins with with the word word ‘perhaps’ which signifies that in deconstruction everything is provisional, you cannot make positive or definitive statements in these area of criticism but we will proceed as we can. This is another key to deconstruction even as you come to understand that nothing is stable that meaning is always contingent and ambiguous you continue to as if nothing is wrong.
Derrida introduces the idea that some event has occurred this event is some sort of rupture or break in the fundamental structure of western philosophy. This break is a moment m oment where the whole way philosophy thought about itself shifted. That That shif shiftt or rupt ruptur ure, e, was was when when it beca became me poss possib ible le to thin think k abou aboutt the the structurality of structure .This is the moment became possible to think about the idea of structure itself and how every system whether language or philosophy itse itself lf had had a stru struct ctur uree .The .The mome moment nt when when phil philos osop ophe hers rs bega began n to see see thei their r philosophical system, not as absolute truth, but as systems as constructs. The concept of centre
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The concept of centre has been practiced practiced in structurali structuralism sm as well as in west wester ern n thou though ght, t, main mainly ly to push push the the play play of sign signss to the the back backgr grou ound nd .All .All western discourses and thinking tend to be centered on the author or other external factors without any freedom of interpretation.
A structure is made up of several components, it has a centre .It is the function of the centre to give direction, organization and balance. In Saussure’s theory of language this centre is assigned the function of controlling the endless differential play of internal relationships while it remaining out side that play.
The hypothetical centre of structure makes it problematic in the sense that it is supposed to control the structure and at the same time is not part of it. The absence of the transcendental signified expands the scope of the domain of interpretation or the play of signification endlessly.
All the structures depend on two aspects .they are the relationships of parts and the structure to be organized around a centre. A structure presupposes relationship of parts organized around a centre. It is the central principle that defin defines es its its esse essent ntia iall natu nature; re; this this prin princi cipl plee is seen seen in the the whol wholen enes esss of the the structure. A building is a building because of the joining of the together of its
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constituent parts .But the parts taken separately does not give its wholeness. The wholeness of the building cannot be identified with any of its individual parts. So the centre of a structure is not specific and present in it. Play and presence
Stability or fixity caused by centre is what Derrida calls presence something is fully present when it is stable and fixed, not provisional and mobile. Play is the disruption of presence. There can be two attitudes towards the idea of play. One is you can mourn for the loss of fixity of meaning or rejoice in multiplicity. Derrida says enjoying play is better. Bricolage
Once you deconstruct a system by pointing out its inconsistencies, by showing there is play in the system, Derrida says we have two choices. One is that you can throw out the whole structure as no good. The other option is to keep using the structure and recognize that it is flawed. This means to stop attributing truth value to structure or system, but rather to see that system as system, as a construct, as something built around a central idea, even though the central idea is flawed or even an illusion. Derrida calls this method bricolage. The person who does it is a bricoleur. This is somebody who does not care about the purity or stability of the system he uses, but rather uses what is there to get a particular job done. In philosophical terms I want to talk about a belief
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system, so I refer to God because it serves as an illustration of something that a lot of people believe in, I don’t assume that God refers to an actual being. Bricolage does not worry about the coherence of the words or ideas it uses.
Derrida in this essay attempts a definition of his concept of what a structure is. He uses the metaphor of the centre in his definition of a structure. He regards the passage from structuralism to post structuralism as a passage from centered to decentred or centre less structures. There are no fixed points or absolutes in the universe, everything is relative and the universe we live in is dece decent ntre red. d. All All we have have is free free play play.. In othe otherr word wordss Derr Derrid idaa reje reject ctss the the structuralist belief that texts have centers of meanings.
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