Déconstruction

Déconstruction is a critical approach associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Emerging in the 1960s, it is a method of reading texts that seeks to reveal how meaning is produced and how apparent hierarchies or oppositions are unstable.

Its central aim is to interrogate binary oppositions such as presence/absence, speech/writing, truth/illusion, and to show how such pairs depend on each other and on context. Derrida introduced the idea of différance, the process by which meaning is produced through deferral and trace, arguing that language is diffused and never fully present.

Deconstruction is not destruction; it's a practice of close reading that opens texts to multiple interpretations and highlights internal contradictions. It has been applied widely, from literature and philosophy to law, anthropology, gender studies, theology, and film. Key works include Derrida's Of Grammatology (1967), Writing and Difference (1967), and Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (1966), which introduced many of the methods and themes associated with the approach.

Reception: It has been influential but controversial; critics accuse it of relativism or obscurity, while supporters argue it offers a rigorous critique of metaphysical assumptions and an openness to marginal perspectives. In architecture, deconstruction became associated with postmodern design through practitioners influenced by Derrida.