JACQUES DERRITA

POST STRUCTURALISM

1.Introduction about Derrita:

•Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) 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.
•He was also one of the most prolific.
•Although not purely negative, deconstruction is primarily concerned with something tantamount
to a critique of the Western philosophical tradition.
LIFE AND WORKS ABOUT DERRITA:
 JACQUES DERRIDA(1930-2004) was a French philosopher. his work is mostly associated
with post –structuralism.
 Birth-Alegeria(know was a French colony)but he came to pariswhere he did his higher Studies.
 Also, derridawho is today primarily known for his concept of deconstruction, became a global
phenomenon in 1966.
 The year when he delivered a very important lecture in john Hopkins university in
America.―structure, sign and play in the discourse of humanities‖(1966).
 Subsequently, his seminal text titled of grammatologywas published in the year(1967).And this
cemented this reputation as one of the foremost thickness of the 20thcentury.
 Now, derrida‘scareer is marked by a mind boggling eclecticism really, because we find Derrida
writing extensively on the work of people as different as plato, Husserl, Heidegger, marx,
Emmanuel Levinas, Roland barthes.
DERRIDA’S FAMED FOR:-
 French philosopher whose critique of Western philosophy and analyses of the nature of language,
writing, and meaning were highly controversial yet immensely influential in much of the
intellectual world.
DERRIDA’S FOCAL OPINION :-
  It emphasizesthe dominance of one particular way of thinking over others, and belies the idea of
fixed meaning, overturning, and therefore exposing, the existence of the binary and destabilizing
previously fixed categories of understanding
STRUCTURALISM:
 Structuralism is a literary theory
 It can be related with text and make study of text
 System of recurrent patterns or motifs
 Studied the underlying structure.
 Structuralism argues that
 There must be structure in every text,whichexplains why it is easier for experienced readers that
for non-experienced readers to interpret a text.
 Hence,everything that is written seems to be governed by specific rules,ora ―grammar of
literature‖,thatone learns in educational institutions and that are to be unmasked.‖
 In simpler terms,Structuralismis a literary theory that says that you can analyze a text and through
it come to understand the larger structure such as the culture,theliterary genre etc
POST-STRUCTURALISM:
 Post structuralism complements structuralism by offering alternative modes of
inquiry,explanationand interpretation.
 Post-structuralism considers structuralism as inadequate in revealing the fact that signification or
meaning of any text is inherently unstable.
 Brings in the idea of indeterminancyof meaning which is the core of deconstructive practice
which Derrida theorised as Difference.
POST-STRUCTURALISM:ACCORDING TO DERRIDA:
 Language is a translucent medium and does not connects one to reality of truth outside the text or
cultural message.
 It is just a code whose units derive their meaning from their contrast with one another and not
because they have any real connection with the outside world.
 He argues that philosophy has traditionally based concepts of truth on presence, that is ,the
presence of the thing or of the idea to the mind.
 He examined that presence of a thing can only be identified by distinguishing it from other
objects.
 Knowledge system is logo centric and thus needs to be deconstructed.
 Post-structuralistsrejects the binary opposition to terms like:
 Reason/passion,Man/women,Speech/writing,black/white,andthese concepts are associated with
each other on the basis of the metaphysical understanding of positive and negative/good and
evil/right and wrong.
 In this approach the reader is central that the author.Theauthor is not present,neitherhis
background but writing is the supplement.
MAIN INFLUENCES:
 Derrida‘s main influence for the development of this theory was from the
theorist,MartinHeidegger.
 In the summer of 1927, Martin Heidegger delivered a lecture course now published under the
title, Basic Problems of Phenomenology.
 Heidegger says that phenomenology is the name for a method of doing philosophy; he says that
the method includes three steps—reduction, construction, and destruction—and he explains that
these three are mutually pertinent to one another.
  To name deconstruction as ‗–ism‘ is to call it to order, to harness it to familiar, stable,
logocentricnotions of what thinking should be. If it is Deconstructionism, then it must be a mode
of analysis or critique; or a method or a project. Derrida has resisted this
KEY TERMS FROM THE EARLY WORK
 Derrida‘s terms change in every text that he writes. This is part of his deconstructive strategy. He
focuses on particular themes or words in a text, which on account of their ambiguity undermine
the more explicit intention of that text.
 a. Speech/Writing b. Arche-writing c. Différanced. Trace e. Supplement
A.Speech/Writing
 Saussure argues t―language and writing are two distinct systems of signs :The second exists for
the sole purpose of representing the first‖
 Language,hasan oral tradition that is independent of writing and it is this independence that
makes a pure science od speech possible.
 Derrida disagree with this hierarchy and argues that all that can be claimed of writing –eg, that is
derivative and merely refers to other sign –is equally true of speech.
 B. Arche –writing
 Arche –writing refers to a more generalized notion of writing that insists that the breach that
written introduces between what is intended to be conveyed and what us actually conveyed.
 According to derrida, all writing must be able to function in the absence of every empirically
determined addressee
C. DIFFERANCE
 Difference is an important idea within deconstruction.
 It is the observation that the meaning of words come from their synchrony with other words
within the language and their diachronic between contemporary and historical definitions of a
word.
 Understanding language according derridarequired and understanding of view pint soglinguistic
analysis.
 For example, the word ―house ―derives its meaning more as a function of how it differs from
―shed‖, ―mansion‖, ―hotel‖,‖building‖,etc.
 Than how the word ‖house‖ may be tied to a certain image of a traditional house with each term
being established in reciprocal determination with the other terms than by an perceived
description.
CASE EXAMPLE -PARC DE LA VILLETTE

 Différanceis another concept of deconstructivistphilosophy that was translated to architecture.

 Bernard Tschumiapproached most of his projects with the strategy of différance.
 This concept is evident in the idea behind the ―Parc de la Villette‖‘ design where he attempted to
find ―an organizing structure that could exist independent of use, a structure without center or
 hierarchy (hence the grid), a structure that would negate the simplistic assumption of casual
relationship between a program and the resulting architecture
HISTORYOFDECONSTRUCTION:
 Rene Descartes and Fredrick Nietzsche were pioneers in Deconstruction.
 They began to question the objective truth of language.
DECONSTRUCTION:
 The concept was first outlined by Derrida in Of Grammatology where he explored the interplay
between language and the construction of meaning.
 Deconstruction is one of the several doctrines in contemporary philosophy often loosely held
under the umbrella term spost-structuralism and postmodernism.
 According to Derrida, ―There is not –one deconstruction, and deconstruction is not a single
theory or a single method.
 A close and critical reading of a written text to uncover the wags of thinking that constraint our
impression or conceptualization of the world.
BINARY OPPOSITIONS:
 The binary opposition is the structuralist idea that acknowledges the human tendency to think in
terms of opposition.
 For Saussure the binary opposition was the ―means by which the units of language have value or
meaning; each unit is defined against what it is not.‖
 With this categorization, terms and concepts tend to be associated with a positive or negative.
 For example, Reason/Passion, Man/Woman, Inside/Outside, Presence/Absence, Speech/Writing.
CASE EXAMPLE -BINARY OPPOSITIONS

 This is a central principle of deconstructive philosophy that was translated to architecture through
several de-constructivist architects.
 This idea involves deconstructing the principle of causality, cause/effect, which was manifested
in architecture by deconstructing the relationship between form and function, form and program,
and structure and economy, among others.
 Tschumihas attempted in Parc de la Villette and through the follies to deconstruct the connection
between the form and the program considering that the program is constantly changing.
 The form was also separated from the function because any folly can substitute its function with
another. For example, one folly, which was formerly a restaurant, became a gardening center and
then, an art studio. These changes can simply occur without affecting the general identity of the
park (Kroll, 2011). This principle is also powerfully present in Frank Gehry‘s projects, which are
characterized by paradoxes, discontinuity, and distortion. Gehry deconstructed these binary
oppositions: function/structure, beauty/ugliness, and interior/exterior.
DECONSTRUCTION AFTER DERRIDA:
 The Yale School Between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, many thinkers were influenced by
deconstruction, includingPaul de Man,Geoffrey Hartman, andJ. HillisMiller. This group came to
 be known as theYale schooland was especially influential inliterary criticism. Derrida and
HillisMiller were subsequently affiliated with theUniversity of California, IrvineMiller has
described deconstruction this way: "Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text,
but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock,
but thin air.

Eisenman‘sWexnerCenterof Art Parc de la Villette by Architect TschumiIn

 TschumiInWexnerCenterof Art, Eisenmanincorporates a white metal grid to signify scaffolding

and give the building a sense of incompleteness or fragmentation. Whereas Tschumiis designed
by Parcde la Villettewith an intention to create a vacuum and remove any preconception that
people might associate with an urban park30
 Another architect whose work follows the principles of deconstructivismis Daniel Libeskind. His
design for theJewish Museumis conceived as a ―trace‖ of the ―erasure‖ of the holocaust, with an
intention to depict the void left by the memory of Jews. It is designed as a twisted zig-zagand a
line of voids or empty spaces run linearly through the entire building.

REFERENCES:
 Derrida‘s Critique of Logocentrism–Literary Theory and Criticism (literariness.org)
 Derrida‘s Concept of Differance–Literary Theory and Criticism (literariness.org)
 Jacques Derrida: Transcendental Signified –Literary Theory and Criticism (literariness.org)
 Derrida: Trace and Play –Literary Theory and Criticism (literariness.org)
 An Appraisal to Derrida –Derrida: The Father of Deconstruction (wordpress.com)
 mforbes.sites.gettysburg.edu/cims226/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Week-5a-Jacques-Derrida.pdf
 Deconstruction Today | Cairn.info
 www2.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f13/drrdassp.pdf32
BY
KARTHIKEYANI S
20GA008
M.ARCH SECOND YEAR
2020-2022 BATCH
TCE,MADURAI.