Derrida’s Deconstructive Approach

Running head: DERRIDA’S DECONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH
DERRIDA’S DECONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH
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1DERRIDA’S DECONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH
Jacques Derrida the celebrated philosopher of a French-Algerian origin is well known for
the contributions in the field of postmodern philosophy and the post-structuralism. The
philosopher is known for the attitude of questioning the philosophical tradition and the culture as
a whole that is practiced in the Occident (Derrida, 2017). The deconstructive approach as
described by the concerned philosopher aims to challenge the various assumptions that are based
on the Western culture. The following essay deals with the deconstructive approach as proposed
by the celebrated philosopher.
The deconstructive approach as proposed by the eminent French-Algerian origin
philosopher applies to the all the texts within the scope of the literature. The concept of
deconstruction opposes to the concept of structuralism that was proposed by the Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure. The structuralism as proposed by the Swiss linguist stated that the
signifier, the form of the sign, maintains a direct reference to the signified, or the content of the
sign (Culler, 2014). However, Derrida, the philosopher of the French-Algerian origin was
famous for the semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, through which he had put forth the
matters that brought about a disruption in the matters that pertain to the metaphysical school of
thought on the basis of the oppositions that might be put forth on the basis of the predictions of
the same.
The deconstructive approach as opposed to the structuralist theory throws a challenge to
the ideas of the frozen structure that was advocated in the previous styles of analysis of the texts.
The deconstructive approaches state that there is a lack of the center, structure of the univocal
meaning in the structure of the statements as allowed by the concerned language. The
deconstructive approach also denies the direct association of the signifier and the signified
(Irwin, 2016). The concerned approach in discussion however states that there might exist