Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Assignment
Paper VII: Literary
Theory & Criticism: The 20th Western & Indian Poetics – 2
Topic: Structure Sign
and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Name:
Kaushal Desai
Department: M.A. English
department
Semester: II
Roll No: 14
To
be submitted to: The Department of English,
M.K. Bhavnagar University
Table
of Contents
Sr. No.
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Title
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Page No.
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1.
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Preface
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3
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2.
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Define Deconstruction
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3
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3.
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Deconstructing Structure and Sign
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4
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4.
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Incest, Myth, and Music in the Discourse
of the Human Sciences
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6
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5.
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What makes content of Derrida’s point
of view
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9
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6.
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Summing up
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9
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7.
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Bibliography
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10
|
◙
Structure
Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.
→ Preface:
The philosopher, Jacques Derrida sees in modern
times a particular intellectual ‘event’ which constitutes a radical break from
past ways of through, loosely associating
this break with the philosophy of Nietzsche and Heidegger and the
psychoanalysis of Freud. The event concerns the 'decentring' of our
intellectual universe. Prior to this event the existence of a norm or centre in
all things was taken for granted: thus 'man', as the Renaissance.
Derrida embraces this decentred
universe of free play as liberating, just as Barthes in 'The Death of the
Author' celebrates the demise of the author as ushering in an era of joyous
freedom. The consequences of this new decentred universe are impossible to
predict, but we must endeavour not to be among 'those who ... turn their eyes
away in the face of the as yet unnamable which is proclaiming itself (Newton,
p. 154).
If one can amplify convey of
Derrida that would be a mark of the today’s life. He determine Deconstruction
is always be have structure that connect in past. But first we have to know
what ‘Deconstruction’ is?
Define Deconstruction:
As applied in the criticism
of literature, designates a theory and practice of reading which questions and
claims to "subvert" or "undermine" the assumption that the
system of language provides grounds that are adequate to establish the
boundaries, the coherence or unity, and the determinate meanings of a literary
text. Typically, a deconstructive reading sets out to show that conflicting
forces within the text itself serve to dissipate the seeming definiteness of
its structure and meanings into an indefinite array of incompatible and undecidable
possibilities.
In other way we can say, Deconstruction is not synonymous with 'destruction'. It
is in fact much closer to the original meaning of the word 'analysis', which
etymologically means 'to undo' The deconstruction of a text does not proceed by
random doubt or arbitrary subversion, but by the careful teasing out of warring
forces of signification within the text. Derrida's own description of
deconstructive reading has the same purport. A deconstructive reading: must
always aim at a certain relationship, unperceived by the writer, between what
he commands and what he does not command of the patterns of language that he
uses attempts to make the not-seen accessible to sight. Man is disinterred from
the language and “Back to Nature” like he also tells that “Being and Time”
which we can apply to the human sources.
Deconstructing Structure and Sign:
At this point I want to describe
some aspects and want to clear this concept in that Derrida begins his
text with a reference to a recent event in the history of the concept of
structure, but immediately retreats to question the use of the word “event.” He
is concerned that the word “event” is too loaded with meaning. Why is this a
problem?Because the function of thinking about structure is to reduce the
notion of events. Why is it so? Because thinking about structure must be
abstract and exclude concretes such as events. Still, Derrida wants to report
on something that happened, which is relevant to the concept of structure, so
he allows the event to be admitted into the discussion, provided it is enclosed
in quotation marks, as a word and not an actual event. The event is now
identified as that of “rupture” and “redoubling” Of what? The reader
will not find out until the end of the essay:
“The appearance
of a new structure, of an original system, always comes about and this is the
very condition of its structural specificity by a rupture with its past, its
origin, and its cause”.
Then this is
what has recently happened as we see in the history of the concept of structure,
a nascent structure is struggling to be born out of the old one, and it
collides with the old structure--its origin and cause. The reader, however, is
still in the beginning of the essay and has no clue what the rupture is about.Back
in the beginning of the essay, Derrida proceeds to talk about the center of a
structure, which controls the structure by orienting and organizing it. Derrida
admits that an unorganized structure is unconceivable and that a structure
without a center is unthinkable, but he contends that the center delimits and
diminishes the possible play within the structure. Play, then, is whatever goes
against the organization and coherence of the structure. (Peter Barry, Beginning
theory, Deconstruction, 61)
Derrida now points out the paradox that
the center of the structure must be both inside and outside the structure. It
must be a part of the structure, but also independent of it, in order to
control it. Derrida appears to delight in refuting the Law of Identity. He
exclaims that since the center is both inside and outside the structure, “the
center is not the center”. Nevertheless, he continues to write about the
center, confident that it can exist and function while not being itself. So
much for Aristotle in Derrida’s esteem.
Actually next we can observe that Derrida
surveys the entire history of the concept of structure, up to the recent,
still-mysterious, rupture, as a series of substituting one center for another.
Never was there a structure without a center, full of nothing but play. What
types of centers were there so far? Derrida names a few, essence, existence,
substance, subject, consciousness, God, man. The structure, then, is not just
any structure, but a structure of concepts, that is, philosophy, with one
central concept that controls it. According to Derrida, the event of the
rupture occurred when there was a disruption in the series of substituting one
center for another. This disruption occurred when the very idea of the
structurality of the structure became the subject of somebody’s thought.
However, according to Derrida, a center cannot substitute itself, it cannot be
repeated. The old center could not stay and there was no new one. Then, for the
first time in the history of structure, “it was necessary to begin thinking
that there was no center”. Instead, “an infinite number of sign-substitutions
came into play”. In the absence of a center, play finally had its chance.
What does play consist of? Derrida describes how, once there was no center,
language invaded the scene and everything became discourse. The signified
became indistinguishable from the signifier, and the play became “a play of
signification”. Signs, that is, words, could have any meaning, in a
boundless, infinite play.Derrida stops short of embracing Nihilism.
In a half-hearted admission of
historical events, Derrida points out several individuals who contributed to
the historical elimination of the center Nietzsche’s critique of the concepts
of “being” and “truth”; Freud’s critique of self-presence,
consciousness, self-identity, and the subject himself; and finally, Heidegger’s
radical destruction of metaphysics. Still, Derrida stops short of embracing
Nihilism. He admits that it is impossible to destroy a concept without using
it. It is impossible to pronounce a proposition without using the form, the
logic, and the postulations of what it attempts to contest. He points out that
signs must signify something.
As we also can see that why is Derrida
concerned about saving the distinction between the sign and what it signifies?
Because “we cannot do without the concept of the sign, for we cannot give up
this metaphysical complicity without also giving up the critique we are
directing against this complicity”. Like Prometheus, who was not allowed to
die so that the eagle could keep eating his liver, the sign has to be kept in
existence in order to keep being critiqued. The ugly face of Deconstruction
finally shows itself. Derrida is characteristically blunt about the paradox
that the metaphysical reduction of the sign needs what it is reducing. He goes
further to say that Nietzsche, Freud, and Heidegger could destroy each other
only because they worked within an inherited system of metaphysics. They
inherited enough of what to destroy.
Incest, Myth, and Music in the Discourse of
the Human Sciences:
At this point, Derrida asks: “What
is the relevance of this formal scheme when we turn to what are called the
‘human sciences’”. Derrida brings up ethnology as the human science that
can benefit from his discussion in part one. He draws out a parallel between
the history of ethnology and the history of the concept of structure. Ethnology
emerged as a science when European culture lost its ethnocentric notion of
itself, when the central idea in Western culture, ethnocentrism, lost its
control over Western culture. The critique of European ethnocentrism coincided
with the destruction of the inherited metaphysics by Nietzsche, Freud, and
Heidegger. Ethnology is caught up in a similar paradox as the metaphysics
of deconstruction. It depends on that which it seeks to destroy. It originated
in Europe and uses European concepts, but it attempts to destroy the notion of
European ethnocentrism. There is no escaping the paradox: “The ethnologist
accepts into his discourse the premises of ethnocentrism at the very moment
when he denounces them”. This deterministic conclusion should be sufficient
to invalidate ethnology as a science, but Derrida defies this paradox and
continues to write about ethnology.
At this point Derrida brings up the
opposition between nature and culture, which is an ancient philosophical issue.
He uses the ethnological writings of Claude Levi-Strauss as an example of the
study of this opposition. Levi-Strauss discovered a scandalous paradox inherent
in the nature/culture opposition. The taboo on incest, as Levi-Strauss
observed, was both natural and cultural: It was a universal taboo, not
particular to a specific culture, but still a part of each culture. The
problem, obviously, is not with the taboo on incest, but with Levi-Strauss’s
interpretation of its universality as “natural”.
As Will Thomas observed in his essay, the natural
and the universal are not synonymous. Still, Derrida uses this “paradox”
in order to commend Levi-Strauss for continuing to use the nature/culture
opposition in his ethnological studies while criticizing its inherent paradox.
This is an example of deconstruction, which must continue to use what it is
deconstructing. The “scandal” of this paradox is like a storm in a teacup, but
it is sufficient for Derrida to require that the nature/culture opposition be
questioned. Derrida proceeds to claim that once the opposition between nature
and culture is questioned, there is no way to separate nature and culture, and
they become indistinguishable.
Another successful deconstruction has
taken place. At this point, Derrida proceeds to search for the origin, or
originator, of language. In a conglomeration of linguistic musings, he
hypothesizes that if there was such an originator, he must be a myth, because
he would be “the absolute origin of his own discourse and supposedly would construct
it ‘out of nothing’”. However, Derrida admitted before that signs could not
exist independently of what they signify. The logical conclusion would be that
language did not come into existence out of nothing, but was preceded by the
concepts it was about to name. In Objectivist terms, man developed a conceptual
capacity before he developed language. Nevertheless, Derrida continues to use
Levi-Strauss’s writings to explain that language was preceded and created by
mythology. He describes mythology as a structure with no center, that is, no
origin or cause.
But wasn’t “center” defined
before as an overruling concept, which mythology certainly has? In an application
of the deconstructing play, the meaning of the word “center” has
shifted to “origin”. The origin of mythology is indeed unknown, which
qualifies it as a center-less structure. Similarly, the musical works of the
archaic societies studied by Levi-Strauss have no known composers, so music
qualifies as a center-less structure as well. In another shift of the meaning
of “origin,” Derrida quotes Levi-Strauss’s claim that the audience of a musical
performance is like “a silent performer,” so the origin of the music is
indeterminate. It is in the conductor, the performers, and the audience,
everywhere and nowhere. The reader may think that mythology and music still
have an overruling concept, they have a meaning, but once they are defined as
center-less, their meaning is doomed to be deconstructed as well: “Music and
mythology bring man face to face with potential objects of which only the
shadows are actualized”. Derrida wants to save philosophy for the same
purpose he wanted to save the sign: for endless deconstruction.
After stating that the mythological
discourse has no center, Derrida leaps to the conclusion that the philosophical
or epistemological requirements of a center appear as no more than a historical
illusion. Philosophy never had a real center, only an illusionary one, because
it depends on language, which depends on mythology, which never had a center.
Again, Derrida recoils from the inevitable Nihilism of this conclusion. He
prefers to leave open the question of the relationship between philosophy and
mythology, so that philosophy may still have a center. He acknowledges that the
possibility that philosophy never had a center is a problem that cannot be
dismissed, because it may become a fault within the philosophical realm. Such a
fault, however, is a species of Empiricism, a doctrine that Derrida obviously
holds in great disregard. Derrida is concerned that Empiricism is a menace to
the discourse he attempts to formulate here. Derrida wants to save philosophy
for the same purpose he wanted to save the sign: for endless deconstruction. He
stresses that it is impossible to actually turn the page on philosophy. Even “transphilosophical”
concepts that attempt to go beyond philosophy can only amount to reading
philosophers in a certain way. There is nothing to be studied beyond philosophy.
Derrida proceeds to deconstruct
Empiricism, the one philosophy he will not miss. He attempts to invalidate the
Empiricist critique of Levi-Strauss’s ethnological theories. Levi-Strauss was
criticized for not conducting an exhaustive inventory of South American myths
before proceeding to write about South American mythology. He defended himself
by claiming that a linguist can decipher a grammar from only a few sentences
and does not need to collect all the sentences of a language. Derrida obviously
agrees with him. However, grammar and mythology are not analogous. Each myth is
unique and can add more to the study of mythology, whereas all the sentences in
a language use the same grammar, so only a sample of sentences is needed for
the study of grammar. However, this is empirical evidence, which Derrida
disregards. He uses Levi-Strauss’s example of the study of grammar to prove
that “totalization” is both useless and impossible. It is useless and
impossible to encompass the totality of language in order to study its grammar.
In the absence of totalization, what emerges is “nontotalization,” which is
again defined as “play.” This time, it is language, not structure that loses
its coherence to “play.” However, the play remains the same: words can now have
any meaning.
What makes content of Derrida’s point
of view?:
• We look for the truth of the text
which in fact is only language, and create in our quest another text through
our criticism to supplement the lack of the original text. Supplement the lack
of the original text reading is reactivating the expressivity of the text with
the help of its indicative signs. But in the words of John Sturrock,
•
“the meanings that are read into it may or may not coincide with the meanings
which the author believes he or she has invested it with. A reasonable view is
that a large number of these meanings will coincide depending on how far
separable author and reader are in time, space and culture; but that a large
number of other meanings will not coincide. For language have powers of
generating meanings irrespective of the wishes of those of who use it.”(Derrida,
42)
•
of course, the discussion here barely begins to scratch the surface of the
implications made by Derrida, for within not even a full fourteen pages of
text, has established the foundation of one of the most significant revolutions
in the history of thought. Of course, saying that Derrida demonstrated how the
history of thought contradicted itself and in so doing imploded the foundation
of Western philosophy. Yet, there is scant little chance of denying that
Derrida himself holds some special place in this development: if not as its
father then at least as its catalyst.
♀
Summing up:
Now,
I want to conclude with M.H.Abram’s observation in ‘How to do things with
texts?’“Derrida emphasizes that to deconstruct is not to destroy; that
his task is to “dismantle the metaphysical and rhetorical structures” operative
in a text “not in order to reject or discard them, but to reconstitute them in
another way” that he puts into question the “search for the signified not annul
it, but to understand it within a system to which such a reading is blind”.Hence
we also can say that he tries to prove some important argues with the facts
that can give us clear come back with by examples that is conspicuous.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Barry, Peter. "Beginning theory." Barry,
Peter. Beginning theory. Manchester University Press, n.d.
Works Cited
Derrida, Jacques. "Structure, Sign And Discourse
In The Human Sciences."
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