Deconstructionism was initiated by Jacques Derrida in the 1960s as a theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions of certainty, identity, and truth. It asserts that words can only refer to other words and denies being a doctrine or method. Derrida and other scholars like Paul de Man and J. Hillis Miller developed deconstructionism at Yale University between the 1960s and 1980s. Deconstructionism examines the tensions between hierarchical opposites in texts like nature/culture, speech/writing, and mind/body. It calls attention to the role of absence and difference in fundamental philosophical concepts like truth, reality, and being. Despite some criticism of being nihilistic, ahistorical and apolitical,

1. DECONSTRUCTIONISM
Reported by: Angelica Cyril C. Adivoso,RN
MA BIOLOGY EDUCATION

2. VOCABULARIES:
 Ahistorical – not related to history.
 Apolitical – no interest in politics.
 Logocentricism – excessive attention paid to the
meaning of words.
 Metalanguage – language or vocabulary used to
describe language.
 Nihilistic- A doctrine holding that all values are
baseless and that nothing can be known or
communicated.

3. HISTORY
 It is initiated by Jacques Derrida
 1960
 It is a theory of literary
criticism
 Questions traditional
assumptions:
 certainty,
 identity, and truth;
 asserts that words can only refer
to other words.
 He denied it was a doctrine or
method.

4.  The development was initiated at the Yale
University between the 1960’s to 1980’s.
 Other Yale philosophers who contributed in
deconstructionism are Paul de Man, Geoffrey
Hartman and J. Hillis Miller.

5. OTHER INFLUENCES
 Richard Rorty (1931 -2007)
 “Accidental” features of a
text.

6.  In the 1970s the term was applied to work by
Derrida, Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, and Barbara
Johnson, among other scholars.
 In the 1980s it designated more loosely a range of
radical theoretical enterprises in diverse areas of the
humanities and social sciences.

7. DECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
 It is binary or hierarchical- involving a pair of
terms, one is fundamental and the other one is
secondary. Examples: nature and culture, speech
and writing, mind and body, inside and outside
 To deconstruct an opposition is to explore the
tensions and contradictions between the
hierarchical in the text and its other meaning.

8.  According to Jean - Jacques Rousseau, society
and culture are both oppressing in “state of
nature”, in which humans exist in self-sufficient
and peaceful isolation.
 Then nature is prior to culture, yet in other sense
culture is prior to nature.

9.  Derrida also contends “logocentrism” which there
is the realm of “truth.”
 Logocentrism encourages us to treat linguistic
signs as distinct from and inessential to the
phenomena they represent.
 The tendency to conceive fundamental
philosophical concepts such as :
 truth
 reality
 being in terms of ideas such as presence/
essence, identity, and origin—and in the process
to ignore the crucial role of absence and
difference.

10. DECONSTRUCTION IN LITERARY STUDIES
 It is patterned after structuralism in France way
back in the 1950’s.
 Structuralist movement in anthropology
analyzed cultural phenomena as “signs” and
attempted to develop metalanguage.
 1970’s and 1980’s (US)- aid in transformation
and animation of literary studies concerned
about the language of nature, its meaning and
relationship between human experiences and
literature.

11. DECONSTRUCTION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
AND ARTS
 Influenced by the
Psychoanalysis of Sigmund
Freud, drew attention to the
formation of psyche.

12.  In the U.S.A , the
Legal Studies applied
deconstruction to legal
writing in an effort to
reveal principles and
counter principles.

13. INFLUENCE AND CRITICISM
 In all fields it called attention.
 It encouraged scholars to look beyond the
relationship and the potential conflict between
what the text says from what it does.
 It prompted exploration of fundamental
oppositions and re-examination of ultimate goals.
 On the other hand, it receives criticisms from
others calling it as nihilistic, ahistorical and
apolitical .
 Despite some attacks it is still has some
intellectual enterprises.