Literary Criticism/Deconstruction

#litcrit #literarytheory

Literary Criticism/Deconstruction

In today’s video, we discuss deconstruction as a form of literary criticism. Deconstruction began in the 1960s, largely due to the work of Jacques Derrida and his published works, “Of Grammatology” and “Writing and Difference.” Though Derrida would spend his career defining deconstruction, it would become a turning point in the world of literary criticism. Though it has been largely misunderstood, this video attempts to clear up some of the misconceptions, as well as give a brief understanding of how deconstruction works as a form of criticism.

Deconstruction vs Structuralism:

[LadyJaneBooks]

I love these discussions. Always feel like I am learning something by watching your videos! The background music is lovely as well. Very dark academia! Great video as always! See you next week, Professor Pae! 👍👍

[spreadbookjoy]

I really appreciate these introductory videos! I’ve probably got this completely wrong, but it reminds me of the idea that once art in any form is out there, the creator has no control over how it is interpreted and received. With literature and language, which would seem to be more structured than, say, painting, context changes from person to person, place to place and over time. It’s one of the things I love about re-reading books at different stages of life. There is a Virginia Woolf quote about classics which defines them as the works which will teach you or show your something new at different stages of life and this wouldn’t be possible if meaning were fixed. It’s also one of the reasons that teaching ‘comprehension’ is actually impossible, even though we attempt to do it every day in schools. No two readers are the same - they bring vastly different life, language and reading experiences to every text that they encounter. In schools, we teach them that there is a right and wrong answer because governments can measure those, but it’s really far more complex than this. Though I’ve probably misunderstood deconstruction by applying my own interpretation of what you’re saying 😂

[FITBREAD]

Great video. Loving this series from you.

[literarylion]

Another wonderful video. I've seen a lot of debate around Death of the Author recently in this social media era when authors can easily answer fan questions and "correct" people who have interpreted things in the story incorrectly.

[outofthisworldreader]

It’s funny, when I have been analyzing and reviewing books lately I will always be like what was it Attention! said!! Can’t wait to see more videos like this in the future!

[HeyYallListenUp]

Well, it's one or two more true or false questions than I would have gotten correctly on the quiz before I watched the video. Great job.

[ReadingRetail]

Happy Saturday! 🥰🥰hope you are having a great weekend so far!! Very nice Video. Here to support the channel!! 🤗😘 XOXO love from #RRFam big like10

[ScientistsReadingWorld]

This series is simply brilliant! I think a lot of teaches will start using your videos :D

[turningpageswithclaudia]

When I was an undergrad, I began writing a paper attempting to prove that deconstructionist theory could not be used on post modernist poetry where construct does not exist. Poets like Jackson Mac Low defy language and structure. I was halfway through writing my paper when I realized that I was deconstructing Mac Low’s poetry to prove my point. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Now every time I hear about deconstruction, I think of that paper.

[MasonInTheDark]

Great discussion as always my learned friend. I think I see the merits of this theory as we definitely have to take into account the contextual interpretation of whatever we're reading. Something that was written 100 years ago is going to be interpreted differently now than it would have been when it was contemporary and that is kind of the beauty. A text never really loses it's meaning because the meaning is not fixed and can be extracted in different ways depending on the context in which it was read. Of course i could have completely misunderstood and be talking utter bollocks right now.

[MarcNash]

Top work once again Pae. I don't if I have concluded this correctly from your video, but the Deconstructionists are sort of saying that words are isotopic, that is they have a half-life and their decay/mutation is an essential element of them.

[BookishTexan]

So . . . here on booktube when we say things like, "This is what I got from the book" and accept that others are getting something different from that book we are accepting the basic premise of Deconstruction? That there is no single, right interpretation. That even if the author explains their intent that their intent isn't relative because they can't control the meaning we derive from the words that they used because words dont have fixed meanings because their meaning is derived from all the traces of those words?
Scale of 1-10 how close am I? (You wont hurt my feelings I promise)

[MarilynMayaMendoza]

Hi I am interested in how a text is deconstructed by time. I am writing a memoir that begins, at least my POV character in 1950. A present-day reader deconstructing The Language and Cultural differences between then and now. Aloha

[SophiaClef]

Thank you for doing these videos! I can only imagine how much time and effort they take.

[SelfWriteousness]

Have you personally examined work with these techniques and found you loved the work more, not less?
I think I've had books go both ways where either a work will become dear or hateful to me once I've examined its flaws.
(also, while we're here, I realize you don't need my approval on aesthetics and what-not, but I genuinely like your whiskers)

[CourtneyFerriter]

The more I hear from you about other forms of literary criticism, the more I am convinced that American pragmatism was 100% the right choice for me. 🤣
I never actually had a proper course on lit theory in graduate school, only cultural studies, and we read some Bakhtin, some Gramsci, Stuart Hall, and Raymond Williams. I'm sure we must have read someone like Judith Butler, too, as the prof for that class was an old-school second-wave feminist. Have also read Walter Benjamin (whose work I liked), but in a different class. I read other theorists and criticism in other courses, but all those disparate readings never came together for me as a cohesive whole so that I felt like I had any sort of handle on lit theory.

[Johanna_reads]

That Miller quote seemed so fitting. I'm curious about Barthes and Foucault's Death of the Author. I haven't read the essay, but is there any argument that the author shouldn't have any input after publication? Is that a common misunderstanding? I'm curious to hear your take on that. Great video!

[robynhood]

Great video, really fascinating stuff!

[harleyannegrant]

Can deconstructionist principles be applied to things other than the written word? For ex. If I and another viewer come away with different understandings of what was said in this video, is one (or both) of us wrong? Or have you simply lost control of your creation due to the limitations and/or fluidity of language? Or are both interpretations valid so long as close “reading” was involved? 😵‍💫 I’m so lost lol

[authoremileeharris]

This particular set of videos comes at a good time for me as they actually mesh well with concepts I've been looking at for my current work (wow, I make that sound so important. I'm reworking a romantic novella published in the 40s, which originally references the inefficiency of language to explain greater universal concepts, by throwing in Theosophy and asylums. But I swear this train wreck relates. In my mind at least.) Also, I have a vague memory of Chris Fox putting out a video about why deconstructionism needs to stop (I think he looks at it from the standpoint of maintaining an author's sanity and an argument to keep writing). I'll have to go review that too. Lastly, for some reason your last response to me is not showing up when I go back to click the little thumbs up acknowledgment, so please consider this note that thumbs up.