Deconstructing a Question

What is Deconstruction? 

• Taking apart a house
• A theory that emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression.
• A theory of analysis that focuses on studying and analyzing the text to discover the true and hidden meanings of a text. 
• A theory of analysis that critically studies a text and believes that text's meaning is determined by each reader's interpretation of he text. 

Who is Derrida? 

• The German philosopher who discovered the theory that studies oceans in search of dinosaurs. 
• The Italian professor who is known for his extensive lectures on the critical theory of deconstruction, especially the aspects of binary opposites and chains and signifiers. 
• The French philosopher known for developing the the critical theory of deconstruction, in which he discussed in numerous texts, and developed in the context of phenomenology
• Your mom

What are Binary Opposites? 

• A term that came to Derrida in a dream. 
• A pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. 

Chains and Signifiers 

• Each word has a separate meaning for each individual, related to how they interpret or understand the text given the context.
• Chains are neat looking and so they are significant. 

What is one of the purposes of deconstructing literature?

• To interpret meaning for oneself
• To discover the meaning
• To reveal the text’s undecidability
• To ultimately become a smarter and more intelligent person

"Young Goodman Brown" is a story about

• The hypocrisy in the church
• A naive man succumbing to temptation
• A retelling of a dream that has good morals 
• All of the above as long as you can prove it with textual evidence