Description
Book SynopsisWith an emphasis on readers and reading, Jonathan Culler considered deconstruction in terms of the questions raised by psychoanalytic, feminist, and reader-response criticism. On Deconstruction is both an authoritative synthesis of Derrida's thought and an analysis of the often-problematic relation between his philosophical writings and the...
Trade ReviewAcademic literary criticism continues to be dominated by 'theory' and the struggle between deconstructionist and humanist approaches to the business of reading. Jonathan Culler's On Deconstruction is a typically patient, thoughtful, illuminating exposition of the ideas of Jacques Derrida and their application to literary studies.
-- David Lodge * Commonweal *
As a practicing critic, Culler has always been a deconstructor, and he approaches this topic with special immediacy and force. In On Deconstruction, he offers generous summaries of numerous representative articles and a fine annotated bibliography.... His magisterial way of tracing particular topics and techniques through our diaspora of critical texts, and his provocative analyses, cannot fail to focus any critic's thinking about deconstruction.
* Modern Language Quarterly *
Culler is lucid and thorough, can move into and out of other people's arguments without losing the sense of his own voice and argument, and can manage to seem equally at home with Freudianism, feminism, and traditional literary criticism.
* Times Literary Supplement *
Gifted with grace and clarity, Culler provides us with a stimulating survey of contemporary literary criticism.
* Antioch Review *
Table of ContentsPreface to the 25th Anniversary Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Introduction
Chapter One. Readers and Reading
1. New Fortunes
2. Reading as a Woman
3. Stories of Reading
Chapter Two. Deconstruction
1. Writing and Logocentrism
2. Meaning and Iterability
3. Grafts and Graft
4. Institutions and Inversions
5. Critical Consequences
Chapter Three. Deconstructive Criticism
Bibliography
Translations Bibliography
Bibliography for the 25th Anniversary Edition
Index
