Introduction :-
Jacques Derrida is a French philosopher, was born on July 15, 1930 in Algiers of Algeria, the then French colony. He is famously known as the father of Deconstruction. He has published more than 40 books on various topics such as anthropology, sociology, semiotics, jurisprudence, literary theory and so on. Some of them of “Grammatology” is very famous one that discusses theory of deconstruction and its various aspects. Jacques Derrida was the founder of “deconstruction,” a way of criticizing not only both literary and philosophical texts but also political institutions. Although Derrida at times expressed regret concerning the fate of the word “deconstruction,” its popularity indicates the wide-ranging influence of his thought, in philosophy, in literary criticism and theory, in art and, in particular, architectural theory, and in political theory. Derrida died in Paris on October 8, 2004.
Jacques Derrida first read his paper Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences (1966) at the John Hopkins International Colloquium on “The Language of Criticism and the Sciences of Man” in October 1966 articulating for the first time a post structuralist theoretical paradigm. This conference was described by Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donata to be
Derrida embraces this decentred universe of free play as liberating, just as Barthes in 'The Death of the Author' celebrates the demise of the author as ushering in an era of joyous freedom. The consequences of this new decentred universe are impossible to predict, but we must endeavour not to be among 'those who ... turn their eyes away in the face of the as yet unnamable which is proclaiming itself (Newton, p. 154).
1 ) what is Deconstruction?
If we define Deconstruction meaning so it is difficult to define exact meaning. Deconstruction is not destructive activity but an inquiry into the foundations so it is not negative term.
Jacques Darrida wrote a essay on structure sign and play in discourse of human science. When we talk about what Darrida say we found that in his career we found that he has question that how we can give proper definition of something. That is why he himself never gave definition of Deconstruction.
According to Darrida what we do is differentiating one thing from the other. And for this he gave word DifferAnce.
2) Difference = to differ and to defer the meaning
DiffreAnce is not an idea or a concept but a force which makes differentiation possible which makes postponing possible.
He also talk about the idea of center. He gave the idea of decentering the center. According to Darrida "The center is paradoxically within the structure and out side it. The totality has its center else where The center is not the center.
For Darrida it was necessary to began thinking there was no center, that center could be thought in the form of present being, that center has no natural site that it was not a fixed locus but a function, a short of nonlocus in which an infinite number of sign - substitution come in to play. This rupture this Deconstruction of the center thus created a world where " the absences of the transcendental signified extends domian and play of signification infinitely. "
3)what makes content of Darrida's point of view?
We look for the truth of the text which in fact is only language, and create in our quest another text through our criticism to supplement the lack of the original text. Supplement the lack of the original text reading is reactivating the expressivity of the text with the help of its indicative signs. But in the words of John Sturrock,
the meanings that are read into it may or may not coincide with the meanings which the author believes he or she has invested it with. A reasonable view is that a large number of these meanings will coincide depending on how far separable author and reader are in time, space and culture; but that a large number of other meanings will not coincide. For language have powers of generating meanings irrespective of the wishes of those of who use it.
4) why is it difficult to difine Deconstruction ?
As applied in the criticism of literature, designates a theory and practice of reading which questions and claims to "subvert" or "undermine" the assumption that the system of language provides grounds that are adequate to establish the boundaries, the coherence or unity, and the determinate meanings of a literary text. Typically, a deconstructive reading sets out to show that conflicting forces within the text itself serve to dissipate the seeming definiteness of its structure and meanings into an indefinite array of incompatible and undecidable possibilities.
A post – structuralist term referring to the new way texts are read and interpreted. It is a view of literature derived from Jacques Derrida’s theory of writing and the linguistics of Saussure. Traditional interpretation of author and suppressed the kind of subjectivity, which is often interfered with it. Traditional interpretation also assumed that it is possible to get at the meaning of the text because it is universal.
This is based on a language philosophy which stress the relativity of meaning in as much as ‘language is a system of differences without positive terms.’
It was Saussure who showed that signs differ from each other and they become meaningful through their difference which often taken the form of opposition.For ex: The red is a traffic signal it means stop while green means go. The connection between the signifier red and the signified stop is arbitrary, conventional; It is defined not by its essential properties but by the difference that distinguishes it from green or other signs.
5) Derridian rethinking on the foundation of western philosophy.
Derrida’s critique of Heidegger’s theory, he mentions that Heidegger also tried to look at language as speech and not as a whole tendency. So, he finds the play of ‘logocentrism’ which he calls ‘phonocentrism’. Derrida believes that if a speaker speaks whatever he intends than the intention is a logocentric theory of western philosophy of language. According to the philosophy of language, there is a metaphysics of presence, a presence of a transcendental signifier that holds its position in meaning. This way logocentrism is responsible for phonocentrism which is known as the Derridian rethinking of the foundations of Western philosophy.
Conclusion :-
Thus, Derrida still remain ambiguous and interesting face in literary theory. He suggests that to go beyond philosophy, it has to be read I “a certain way” not assume there is something beyond it. We cannot say what any sing means without reference to its relations to other signs. He employs term like trace / difference / differance / supplement to explain this indeterminacy or play. He also shows by the same logic that logocentrism or phonocentrism or ‘privileging speech over writing has no validity. Stanley Fish, Miller and Paul de man also gives their view to prove the idea of deconstruction.
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