Jacques Derrida (1930 - 2004) has a significant influence upon the academic and intellectual lives of the last decades of the twentieth century. Algerian born French philosopher and critic, he has a large number of books, essays and dissertations been written on his revolutionary ideas and controversial works to his credit.Derrida is considered as one of the major philosophers of all time. Jacques Derrida’s work has a major influence over the studies of scholars working in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences. But Derrida is famous beyond the academic world as well. In the mid 1960s, distancing himself from the preceding philosophical movements and traditions in the French intellectual scenario, he proposed his concept of Deconstruction. …show more content…
The project of deconstruction is centre of the philosophy of Derrida. Derrida developed this idea and coined the term “deconstruction” from Heidegger’s concept of destruction and Husserl’s notion of Abbau [dismantling or unbuilding]. Deconstruction was presented mainly in his famous books Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, Speech and Phenomena, Margins of Philosophy and Dissemination. The first three books are found to be the first ideas that introduced deconstruction to the intellectual and academic audience of the west.
Derrida’s urge to identify things different from what may be designated by that name resulted in deconstruction. He never stopped having doubts about the very identity of what is referred to by such a ‘nick –name. ‘. In Derrida’s own words; Derrida describes deconstruction as
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As Spivak observes, ‘All texts...are rehearsing their grammatological structure, self-deconstructing as they constitute themselves’ ((1976: Ixxviii). All that the deconstructionist is supposed to do, then, is writing, because in the final structure, deconstruction is writing. Furthermore, it is writing with no preconceived goal; as Barthes (1970) put it, ‘to write is an intransitive verb’, a verb without an object, an end in itself. Deconstruction manifests itself in the process of writing rather than in the product: ‘Deconstruction takes place, it is an event that does not await the deliberation, consciousness, or organization of a subject’ (Derrida 1991 :
Many people have difficulty writing and the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, author, and lecturer, Michael Dirda, can support that. Flaw-speckled writing is dealt with over and over again by everyone who aims to write, and in the article written for the Browsings column entitled, “Language Matters”, Michael Dirda explains just that. In Dirda’s article which aims to show what goes into a piece, how it all fits, and the large amount of work needed, he describes the struggles of the modern author when writing. Directed to the readers of The American Scholar, Dirda uses many examples of rhetorical strategies such as outstanding word choice and the audience’s self-interest.
The character Ouisa Kittredge is seen speaking about this theory to her daughter in the movie, “I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet.” Postmodernism emerged in the latter half of the 20th century and if often described as a development of modernism. Postmodernism doesn’t lament the idea of fragmentation but instead celebrates it unlike modernism. A modernist’s literary quest is to find meaning in a chaotic world whereas a postmodernist deliberately tends to avoid, often playfully, the possibility of meaning.
Good writing can only be seen throughout text if there is evident time, thought, and interaction with the text. In our society today, there is often a lack of these three elements that are vital to the composition and effectiveness of a piece. In order to reach the bare minimum in terms of “good writing”, one must take these precedents into serious consideration otherwise, the author will not be writing at their full potential. Each of the three necessary components are briefly touched upon one way or another by three of the most renown authors: William F. Buckley, Jr., George Orwell, and Francine Prose. Together, these three craft a mean definition that fulfill the standards in, especially in this day and age.
Dystopian texts espouse a variety of didactic messages that depend significantly upon both the context and zeitgeist of the time in which they were created. Differences can be found when comparing the techniques and perspectives the authors have chosen to represent their contextual concerns to audiences. Together both Fritz Lang’s silent black and white film ‘Metropolis’ 1927 and George Orwell’s novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (*referred to as 1984) 1948, confront and provoke audiences to consider the impact that (abusive power + unquestionable control= insert question statement) can have not only on the characters in these two texts, but also on the cultural and political lives of the reader and viewer. By subjugating & dehumanising the lower classes, dictators are
There are hundreds of works of literature out in the world, many of them are great, and some are not as great. What makes them great is the truth behind them, the true feelings, and what it truly meant to the author. Many great works of literature are influenced by several different things, in the case of “The Metamorphosis”, it was influenced by the life of Franz Kafka, the author, and his real- life experiences. The Freudian concept help explain why “The Metamorphosis” contains symbols and clues that can be used to compare certain relationships throughout Kafka’s life, one being with his father, and the other with woman who entered his life. Franz Kafka was a German man who worked as a lawyer who worked at the workmen’s Accident Insurance
Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.
The voices of history and tradition are present in quite a few of Jean-Paul Sartre’s pieces. Jean-Paul Sartre, born Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre, was a very complex man. In the 1940’s, Sartre served in the military during World War II. The war heavily influenced Sartre, causing him to relate many of his pieces to his experiences in World War II. Sartre was a French philosopher, and was a major contributor to existentialism - the 20th century way of thinking.
Detachment is quite the devilish character as he slips and slides into the cracks of humanity. Many people claim there is a disconnect between humanity and nature. One author in particular who addresses this is a man named Richard Louv. Louv’s argues that humanity is growing detached from nature leading to a sad loss of an important connection; illustrated effectively by tactical usage of rhetorical strategies. The first section of the excerpt uses ethos to introduce the issue of human technology controlling nature.
Despite the human form that mankind takes, monstrous qualities thrive throughout the natures of humanity, creating creatures full of spite and savagery. This malformation in mankind is proved dominant in Elie Wiesel’s autobiography Night, William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, and the painting searching for humanity by John Wentz. The theme of all these pieces is referring to the hermetical aspects that rely within each individual. The evil that lurks abaft the mask exhibited in the world to optically discern, Wentz’s painting represents those factors within society holistically.
What is deconstruction in literature? According to Merriam Webster, a deconstructionist literary criticism is a “philosophical or critical method which asserts that meanings, metaphysical constructs, and hierarchical are always rendered unstable by their dependence on ultimately arbitrary signifiers” (Merriam). In other words, a deconstructionist literary criticism looks at the book as a whole and deconstructs the pieces of the novel and how they may seem unstable when compared to the whole meaning. This mindset is exhibited in that of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka leaves many aspects of the novel unexplained and he includes details that are unstable to the meaning of the novel as a whole.
The autobiography, The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, provides a vivid insight into the complicated, yet exhilarating, life of Rousseau. The beginning of his life was filled with misfortunes, such as the death of his mother which was quickly followed by a distraught and self-sabotaging attitude which his father adopted. This led to his father’s involvement in illegal behaviors and the subsequent abandonment of Rousseau. His mother’s death was the catalyst for his journey to meet multiple women who would later affect his life greatly. The Influence of Miss Lamberciers, Madame Basile, Countess de Vercellis, and Madam de Warens on the impressionable adolescent mind of Rousseau led to the positive cultivation of self-discovery and the creation of new experiences, as well as the development of inappropriate sexual desires and attachments towards women.
“The Fall of the House of Usher,” a gothic fiction short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, is pervaded by multiple examples of post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of trace. A close examination of the narrative reveals a distinct trace between incestual conception and the current condition of the Usher siblings through the physical and mental hinders which oppress them; a relationship between the occupants of the Usher estate and the trace of themselves which they inflict on the outside of it; and the traces of the author’s personal life within the storyline through the motif of live entombment. Articulated by philosopher Jacques Derrida, the philosophy of trace identifies the relationship between the absent and the presence
Distortion of reality is a symptom of mental illness and also known as derealization. In this disorder, a person feels that his surrounding is not real. Having a feeling of detachment from reality is normal. But it turns into a disorder when you repeatedly or persistently have the feelings that you are detached from your body or the things in your surroundings are not real.
He suffers from psychological complexes, that alienated him from society, and he 's unable to face the realities of life. This research indicates the modern theme of breakdown, absurdity, uselessness, loneliness, and bitterness of life. The protagonist also realizes that the escape from the responsibilities is not a solution to life 's problem. A person ought to create a struggle for his survival, otherwise, there 's the decay of humanity in alienation. In the novel, the author appears to
K.J.Gergen argues that: “the traditional view of self-versus- society is deeply enigmatic and should be replaced by a conception of the self as it is immersed in relatedness. On this account, the individual’s lament of ‘not belonging’ is partially a by-product of traditional discourses themselves”. Furthermore, if the self is relationally constituted, does it make sense to speak of "self-estrangement" rather than "social isolation" (McGarty & Haslam, 2012). Costas and Fleming propose that even though the concept of self-estrangement has not weathered postmodern criticisms of essentialism and economic determinism in an effective way and the concept still has significance when Lacanian approach of the self is deployed. This can be drawn out as part of a larger deliberation on the concept of self between humanism and anti-humanism, structuralism and post-structuralism, or nature and nurture (Costas & Fleming,