Deconstruction is a method of reading which is based on the assumption that language is unreliable.

The goal of a deconstructionist reading is to seek out the contradictions in the text to prove that the text lacks unity and coherence. The point isn't really to show that the text means the opposite of what it is supposed to mean, but that there can be no actual interpretation of the text. Although deconstruction is primarily applied to the written word, some practitioners use deconstructive techniques to analyze concepts, systems and institutions. Deconstructionist critics tend to emphasize not what is being said but how

language is used in a text.

Mostly people express their thoughts in binary oppositions. Things that is true but not true. Perfect but imperfect. Something is white but not black, masculine and therefore not feminine. Other common and mutually exclusive pairs include beginning/end, conscious/unconscious, and presence/absence. Some thoughts have contradictions which mean that it cant be both true at the same time. In deconstruction, there is no real interpretation of the text.

According to J. Hillis Miller, the preeminent American deconstructor, he explains in his essay entitled Stevens Rock and Criticism as Cure that deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantles itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock but thin air. J. Hillis Miller says here that deconstruction is not an act of taking something apart from the structure of a text but instead it shows that it has already dismantles itself.

 Involves close reading of text to demonstrate that any given text has irreconcilably contradictory meanings rather than a unified, logical whole. Language does not refer to any external reality (like Formalism) The aim of deconstruction is to criticize western logic but arose as a response to structuralism and formalism

 See text as more radically heterogeneous than in formalist way. See works in terms of their undesirability It regards language as fundamentally unstable medium The text is based only on the authors intentions Language & Logic are always ruled by hierarchical oppositions. (ex. Good and Evil)

Jacques Derrida An Algerian-born french philosopher Founder of deconstruction His voluminous work had a profound impact upon continental philosophy, French philosophy, and literary theory. In 1983 co-founded the Collge international de philosophie (CIPH), an institution intended to provide a location for philosophical research which could not be carried out elsewhere in the academy. He was elected as its first president. The 1966 paper, in addition to establishing Derrida's international reputation, marked the start of Derrida's use of the concept of deconstruction.

Martin Heidegger Highly influential German philosopher Best known work is Being and Time (1927).

Jean-Franois Lyotard French philosopher and literary theorist Well-known for his articulation of Postmodernism after the late 1970s and the analysis of the impact of post modernity on the human condition

Geoffrey Bennington Member of the International College of Philosophy Best known as an expert on deconstruction and the works of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Franois Lyotard

Paul de Man Belgian-born deconstructionist literary critic and theorist

J. Hillis Miller Has been an important Humanities and Literary scholar specializing in Victorian and Modernist literature Was heavily influenced by fellow Johns Hopkins professor and French literary critic Georges Poulet and the Geneva School of literary criticism

1. Enhances creativity, critical thinking and more mental analysis. 2. Open to the idea that language is evolving, thus future generation need not to be given a limited picture or space of its past or history.

3. Encourages free flow of ideas or mental freedom.

4. Writings becomes only literary.