Derrida and Deconstruction

 Hello my dear friends !

I am Nidhi Jethava and a student of MK Bhavnagar University, department of English. As we know after completing a particular unit we have to do some thinking activity. So this time we have to do a very interesting activity. We have to briefly talk about deconstruction and deconstruct any advertisement, text, movie and serial. So let’s do it. 

Q. 1 What do you understand by 'Deconstruction'? 

Answer :- 

Before discussing Deconstruction it is very much needed to know who gave this term ? 

So it was Jacques Darrida who gave this theory of deconstruction. 

Jacques Derrida (/ˈdɛrɪdə/; French: [ʒak dɛʁida]; born Jackie Élie Derrida; 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004), born in Algeria, was a French philosopher best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he analyzed in numerous texts, and developed in the context of phenomenology. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy.

Deconstruction :- 

So according to Derrida it is very difficult to give a particular definition of deconstruction. So many students are stuck between whether it is a negative trem or not but it is not a negative term. Derrida brought this term from Martin Heidegger. Heidegger wanted to 'dismantle' the entire tradition of Western philosophy by pursuing the question of being of beings. Darrida is highly influenced by Hedigger. He continues the tradition of western philosophy of Hedegger.

The very interesting is to understand what is DiffeAnce 

 

DiffeAnce = to differ + to defer 

DiffeAnce does not have audible difference, thus it becomes difficult to understand. For understanding this we have taken the example of ‘Dictionary’. So Darroda questioned, “ What do you mean by understanding ?’ and he gave some arguments. It is different as we differentiate a word from another to understand its meaning. We do not define, actually, we differentiate.It is different because the meaning is postponed - meaning is adjourned, put back.

It is difference + Deference. Derrida combines both words and coins a new word.

So in a nutshell Deconstruction is not a negative term. It is something that goes beyond what we think. It says that I do not believe in conventional meaning.

Here also we can see that it is idea against structuralism. Words are arbitrary and it has binary opposites like

Good-bad

man-woman

rich-poor

white-black

Some of the examples of deconstruct reading. 

First I would like to give an example of the recently released serial “Bade Achhe Lagte Hain.”  I have seen the promo of that serial and I tried to read that promo from my perspective.  

First I would like to give an example of the recently released serial “Bade Achhe Lagte Hain.”  I have seen the promo of that serial and I tried to read that promo from my perspective.  

So in this promo we find class conflict. It's another season of a popular series. It is one love story but what I have read is class conflict. Here we can see binary theory. Ex  Man/woman 

Rational/emotional

                            Rich/Poor 

Another important thing deconstructed here is our way of thinking that men should be rational and women emotional. This idea also crossed here. The Importance is given to rain.  How We are assuming rain. It's romantic and rainy which is connected with some privileges. Here rain is deconstructed. It is not only a beautiful thing. Poor people suffer a lot in the rainy season. 

     

Same theory we can see in this promo. Male and Rich are privileged while women and poverty are on the same side. So in this short video we saw this class conflict. 

 My second example is from one advertisement. 

So in this advertisement we can be aware about skin conflict. Mindset of black skin and Wight skin. Nor even in western but in India also mentality of white skin is there. Girl worried about her black skin color and she wanted to look fair. It's a traditional way of thinking that if a girl is fair enough only then she finds a good and rich husband. 

Another I would like to give example of movie ‘Bhuj’

This movie is about the war between India and Pakistan. But it also deconstructs the idea about women in India as well as every woman. Generally we think that women are like dolls. She can’t do labor or hard work. In this movie that tradition is broken. Gujarati women helped the Indian air force to reconstruct the runaway within 24 hours. 

Next is from Movie 'MIMI'

‘MIMI’ is a very interesting movie. It is the best example of deconstructing our conventions. This movie talks about one dancer named. ‘Mimi’ and she wanted to be an actress and for that she requires lakhs of rupees.  One American couple higer her as a surrogate mother. So here we found the deconstruction of a child born and at the climax we saw that an American couple ran away and Mimi had decided to give birth to them. She became the mother of white skin baby.  She loved him like her own baby. Then suddenly after four year an American couple came to India and claimed their child. At the end we come to know that an American couple adopted a child who has black skin and Indian. So this skin conflict is also there. Now we are becoming broad minded and accepting black skin. 

Thank You