Derrida and Language: Deconstruction

Abstract

Derrida’s deconstruction aims not only to understand language, text or meaning but also the postmodern universe which replaces the modern one and in which we live. Derrida thinks that the meaning can be attributed to other meanings or significance than the Western metaphysics deem by means of deconstruction. Therefore he considers the saying and writing - just like the meaning- to be behind this thought; the structures which are stereotyped by the aforesaid thought and the actions of which freedom is bereaved. Derrida thinks that the Western thought is completed with the deconstruction; however, he emphasizes that the meaning can be reconstructed. Within this context, this study will discuss Derrida’s war waged with the deconstruction against the dominant meaning conception within the scope of Derida’s “difference”, “trace”, “decentralization”, “undecidability” and “metaphor” perceptions after the explanations to be made regarding modernism and postmodernism; and the way to understand how the differentiation potential of the deconstruction, text and the meaning inside is realized shall be traced.