DECONSTRUCTION Jacques Derrida (1960s) challenged and turned its head of modernity understanding of reality.

For Derrida and other postmodernists, no such thing as objective reality exists. For these thinkers, all definition and depictions of truth are subjective, simply creations of the main of humanity. Truth itself is relative depending on the various cultural and social influences in ones life. Because these poststructuralist thinkers assert that many thrust exist, not one, they declare that modernitys concept of one objective reality must be disavowed and replaced by many different concept, each being a valid and reliable interpretation and construction of reality. Postmodern think that there is no such point of reference, for there is no ultimate truth or inherently unifying element in the universe and thus there is no such ultimate By synthesizing the beliefs of Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and Rorty, however we can hypothesize what this representative postmodern thinker would possibly expose. I believe like my forebears before me, that we, as a race of people, will see progress, but only if we are corporate. The age of the lone scholar, working diligently in the laboratory, is over. Cooperation among scholar from all fields is vital. Gone are the days of individualism. Gone are the days of conquests. Now is the time for tolerance, understanding, and collaboration. Because our knowledge always was and always will be incomplete we must focus on a new concept: holism. We must realize that we all need each other, including all our various perspective on the nature of reality. We must also recognize that our nationality, our thinking process, is only one of many avenues that can lead to an understanding of our world. Our emotions, feelings, and intuition can also provide us with valid interpretations and guidelines for living. And we have finally come to realize that no such things as objective reality exists; there is no ultimate truth, for truth is perspectival, depending on the community and social group in which we live. Because many truth exist, we must learn to accept of each other ideas concerning truth, and we must learn to live side by side, in a pluralistic society, learning from each other while celebrating our differences. We must stop trying to discover the undiscoverableabsolute truthand openly acknowledge that what may be right for one person may not be right for another. Acceptance, not criticism, open-mindedness not close-mindedness; tolerance, not bigotry and love, not hatred must become the guiding principles of our lives, then we can spend more time interpreting our lives and giving them meaning as together we work and play.

Coined by its founding father Jacques Derrida, deconstruction first emerged on the American literary stage in 1966, when Derrida read his paper structure, Sign, and Play at john Hopkins Symposium University. By questioning and disputing in this paper the metaphysic assumption held to be true by western philosophy by the time of Plato, Derrida inaugurated what many critics believe to be the most intricate and challenging methods of textual analysis as yet to appear. He believes that he cannot develop a formalized statement of his rules for reading, interpretation and writing. Unlike treatise, Derrida claims, his approach to reading (and literary analysis) is more strategic device than a methodology, more a strategy or approach to literature that a school or theory of criticism. Such theories of criticism he believes he must identified with a body of knowledge that they claim to be true or to contain truth. It is this assertion (that truth or a core of metaphysical ideals actually exist and can be believed, articulated, and supported) that Derrida and deconstruction wish to dispute and deconstruct. Derrida deconstruction begins with an emphatically affirm Saussures decree that language is a system based different. ASSUMPTION Transcendental signified This transcendental signified would provide the ultimate meaning and would be the origin of origins. This transcendental signified is centered in the process of interpretation and whatever else is decentered. to derrida this is a great error because 1. There is no ultimate truth or a unifying element in universe, and thus no ultimate reality (including whatever transcendental signified). What is left is only difference. 2. Any text, in the light of this fact, has almost an infinite number of possible interpretations, and there is no assumed one signified meaning. Legocentrism The believe that there is an ultimate reality or center of truth that can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and action. Binary Opposition or Conceptual Opposition For each center, there is exist an opposing center (God/humankind, for example) in addition western philosophy holds that in each of these binary operation or two opposing center, one concept is superior and defines itself by opposite or interior center. We know truth for instance because we know deception. We know good because we know bad . Phonocentrism

Phonocentrism treats writing as inferior. We value a speakers word more that the speaker writing, says Derrida, for word implies presence. Through the vehicle of spoken words, we supposedly learn directly what speaker is trying to say. From this point of view, writing becomes a mere copy of speech, an attempt to capture the idea that was once spoken. Methaphysics of Presence It means in the presence there is absence. Stand in one place means you are not in another places. For example, you are in class means that you are not in house. METHODOLOGY Acknowledge Binary Opposition in Western thoughts The first stage of deconstructive reading is to recognize the existence and operation of binary opposition in our thinking. Speech is awarded presence and writing is equated with absence. Being the inferior of the two, writing becomes simply the symbols of speech, a second hand of representation of ideas. Arche-Writing (Symbol) Using traditional western metaphysics that is grounded in phonocentricsm, Derrida begins his reversal of the speech / writing hierarchy by noting that language and writing share common characteristic. For example both involve an encoding or inscription. In writing, this coding is obvious, for the similar encoding exists. As Saussere has already shown, there exists an arbitrary relationship between the signified (between the spoken word cat and the concept of the cat itself). Thus there is no innate relationship between the spoken word and the concept, object, or idea it represents. Supplementation The relationship between any binary hierarchy, however is always unstable and problematic. It is not Derridas purpose simple to reverse all binary opposition that that exists in western though but rather to fragile basis for establishment of such hierarchies and the possibilities of hierarchies and the possibilities of hierarchies to gain new insight into language and live. Supplement uses to refer the unstable relationship between element in binary opposition. Differance It is from France means differ postpone or delay and to differ, to be different form. Understanding what Derrida means by differance is one of the basic keys to understanding deconstruction. Basically, diferance is Derridas what-if questions. What if no transidental signified exists? What if no transcendental signified exists? What if there is no presence in whom we can find ultimate truth? What if all our knowledge dos not arise does not arise from self-

identity? What if there is no essence, being, or inherently unifying element in the universe? What then? Deconstructive Suppositions for Textual Analysis Deconstruction would thus begin textual analysis assuming that a text has multiple interpretations and that it allows itself to be reread and thus reinterpreted countless time. Because no one correct interpretation of any exists, the joy of textual analysis residence in discovering new interpretations each time a text is read and reread. Deconstruction: A New Reading Strategy The steps are Discover the binary operations that govern a text. Comment on the values, concept, and ideas beyond this operation. Reverse these present binary operation. Dismantle previously held worldviews. Accept the possibility of various perspectives or levels of meaning in a text based on the new binary inversions.

Allow meaning in a text indecidable.