I'm not sure "there is" deconstruction in the first place. I find that the
designation constitutes a typical capitalization by which a somewhat neutral
movement/conceptual operation is overburdened with having to operate as a
banner and summary label for a variety of practices, institutional tendencies,
social movements, researches, etc. I'm sick of it, to tell the truth. For me,
"deconstruction" is any movement of decomposition as opposed to violent
rupture (destruction), and I'm as willing to count cognitive psychology
protocols of skill decomposition in expert performaces as "deconstruction" as
I am to consider the "traditional" (!) textual strategies bearing/burdening
the name.
When it comes to "text only" I confess that I have never, ever understood what
was meant by "there is nothing outside the text". On the other hand, as a
play/formation/thing of signs, which themselves constitute the
signifier/signified relation (and add to this sign business the whole play of
performative linguistics, etc., which may not fit in sign theory), we'd have
to say that perhaps nothing is "outside the text" because the text is already
outside of itself in any number of ways. I think it is possible that the move
being guarded against by this gesture is that of a certain "coup" on
understanding which (violently, in a certain way) disrupts the epistemological
commitments of the already underway textual reading in a kind of deus ex
machina (sp?) or something, where as given the *signifieds* in the first
place, that move is just a desperate attempt to return to "reality". But if
that is the case, then, again, the whole play of institutions, language, etc.,
can not be escaped.
Maybe.
Sam Vagenas writes:
>>Except the text is limited to the interesection of language, institutions
>>and power.
>
>Tom,
>
>How can the text-only disposition of deconstruction handle the unruly forces
>of power, let alone the institutions which reinforce this power?
>
>Sam.
---
There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.
Tom Blancato
tblancato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Eyes on Violence (nonviolence and human rights monitoring in Haiti)
Thoughtaction Collective (reparative justice project)
------------------
designation constitutes a typical capitalization by which a somewhat neutral
movement/conceptual operation is overburdened with having to operate as a
banner and summary label for a variety of practices, institutional tendencies,
social movements, researches, etc. I'm sick of it, to tell the truth. For me,
"deconstruction" is any movement of decomposition as opposed to violent
rupture (destruction), and I'm as willing to count cognitive psychology
protocols of skill decomposition in expert performaces as "deconstruction" as
I am to consider the "traditional" (!) textual strategies bearing/burdening
the name.
When it comes to "text only" I confess that I have never, ever understood what
was meant by "there is nothing outside the text". On the other hand, as a
play/formation/thing of signs, which themselves constitute the
signifier/signified relation (and add to this sign business the whole play of
performative linguistics, etc., which may not fit in sign theory), we'd have
to say that perhaps nothing is "outside the text" because the text is already
outside of itself in any number of ways. I think it is possible that the move
being guarded against by this gesture is that of a certain "coup" on
understanding which (violently, in a certain way) disrupts the epistemological
commitments of the already underway textual reading in a kind of deus ex
machina (sp?) or something, where as given the *signifieds* in the first
place, that move is just a desperate attempt to return to "reality". But if
that is the case, then, again, the whole play of institutions, language, etc.,
can not be escaped.
Maybe.
Sam Vagenas writes:
>>Except the text is limited to the interesection of language, institutions
>>and power.
>
>Tom,
>
>How can the text-only disposition of deconstruction handle the unruly forces
>of power, let alone the institutions which reinforce this power?
>
>Sam.
---
There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.
Tom Blancato
tblancato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Eyes on Violence (nonviolence and human rights monitoring in Haiti)
Thoughtaction Collective (reparative justice project)
------------------