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From a Critique of Presence to a Search for the Other

Author: YangDaoXuan
Tutor: CaiXinLe
School: Henan University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: presence deconstruction literary criticism the other
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Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 26
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Abstract

This paper tries to carry out a critical investitation of J. Culler’s masterpiece On Deconstruction from the perspective of its critique of metaphysical presence and its regard for the other, the non-presence. On Deconstruction comes into being as a combination of Derrida’s deconstructive thinking and Americans’traditional emphasis on close reading of liteary text. This book tries to combine deconstruction directly with literary theory and to show the great power exposed in deconstruction’s theoretical practice in the critique of presence. By concentrating on the collapse of presence in different forms, this paper hopes to provide the reader with a map of guide for the deconstructive labyrinth. Still, by showing the collapse of a closed metaphysical kingdom governed by an authorative presence, the collapse of metaphysical violence, deconstruction opens up its concern for the other, the still-to-come in the future. This is the very ethical significance of deconstrucion.This paper is divided into seven parts."Introduction" states the reason for choosing the theme of "critique of presence", gives a brief introduction to Culler himself and his theoretical tendency and literature review, and outlines the organization of this paper. It is also pointed out that this thesis is original not only in that its research of Culler’s On Deconstruction focuses on its critique of presence, but also in its illustration of deconstruction’s ethical significance—the sincere concern for the once excluded other—hoping to more clearly expose the rich thinking contained in deconstruction.Chapter One, "The Rise of Deconstruction", depicts how Derrida forms his deconstructive thinking under a specific social background, illustrates how deconstruction comes out into its prominent status with its inheritance and conflict with its various contemporary schools of thinking especially New Criticism and Structuralism.Chapter Two, "Deconstructing Metaphysical Presence", illustrates the notion of "presence" from its ordinary dictionary meaning to its status of prop for the long metaphysical history in the West. The notion of presence is always accompanied by some kind of metaphysical violence, because in order to decide, or construct, a presence, the followers of metaphysics habitually debase and exclude the non-presence as inessential other. Derrida’s double reading of Plato’s pharmakon and Rousseau’s supplement leads to the collapse of both phonecentrism and logocentrism and lets the other go free.Chapter Three, "The Pursuit of Non-Presence", shows a world without presence. There is no place reserverd for presence in Freud’s thinking on the psychological world, Heidegger and Saussure’s thinking on the relationship between existence and language, and Derrida’s series of notions such as diffe rance, dissemination, trace. The metaphysical line between signifier and signified is broken by Derrida and his precursors once for all.Chapter Four, "Literary Significance of Deconstruction", puts forward a liberated literature from the supression of philosophy. Still, this chapter illustrates both metaphysics’and deconstruction’s attitudes toward meaning production. By sentencing the death of the author, deconstruction opens up the scene for the readers, the once other whose utterance of voices is once taken as meaningless chaos in front of the author-God.Chapter Five, "Criticism’s New Fortune", depicts a scene of criticism under the inspiration of deconstruction. The critics’task is not only to learn to appreciate and respect different readings (and thus to reserve a place for other’s interpretation), but also to "meddle" with the society, the everyday life, such as justice, politics, which are the main concern and topics for Derrida in his later years of life."Conclusion" provides sums up the main ideas of this paper, and points out that this "conclusion" is by its nature a logocentrical notion and should be deconstructed, because the business for Derrida’s deconstruction is to destroy the closure based on some metaphysical presence and leave the scene open for the other, for the future. That’s the very ethical significance of deconstruction.

From a Critique of Presence to a Search for the Other

Abstract

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