Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a loosely defined set of approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning, introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida. He described it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of true forms and essences that are valued above appearances. The literary critic Barbara Johnson characterizes the method as the careful teasing out of warring forces of signification within the text itself, rather than random doubt or generalized skepticism. Since the 1980s its proposals about the fluidity of language have inspired studies in law, anthropology, historiography, linguistics, psychoanalysis, queer studies and feminism, and it also inspired deconstructivism in architecture.