ENGL 303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: New Historicism, Michel Foucault, Deconstruction

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 303
• Professor: Christian Olbey

Document Summary

03-20-2019: derrida deconstructing human identity: if deconstruction has implications for usage of language, it also has implications for understanding human identity. If language is the ground of being, the world is infinite text; always a chain of signifiers. Implications for subjectivity; what it means to be a human being. Language vs. materiality: human interactions = unstable ambiguous conversation. Identity is a multiple and fragmented construction; multiple beliefs/conflicting even. Instability of language --> difficulty communicating our perspective/feelings/beliefs: undecidabilities, no final conclusion; infinite sources of meaning, deconstructive criticism looks for meanings in the text that conflict with its main theme or commentary; text = unaware. It does not just emerge from a top down structure but circulates in a never- ending system of exchange. There is instead a dynamic, unstable interplay among discourses; there are always in a state of flux, overlapping and competing with one another: discourses wield power for those in charge but they also stimulate opposition to that power.