As a student of criticism, the way of looking at anything should be different from others. This is what our professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir used to tell us. In paper number 204; Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies, we have a unit of Derrida and Deconstruction. This activity is assigned by our professor Dr. Dilip sir. Here I'm going to share my views on the term deconstruction and how we can do deconstructive reading of any text, film, ad, Serial etc. So let's begin with what I have understood by the term deconstruction.
Deconstruction is a philosophical movement spearheaded by French thinker Jacques Derrida and other critics during the 1960s. To read more about Jacques Derrida click here.
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” in Western philosophy through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and literary texts. In the 1970s the term was applied to work by Derrida, Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, and Barbara Johnson, among other scholars. In the 1980s it designated more loosely a range of radical theoretical enterprises in diverse areas of the humanities and social sciences, including—in addition to philosophy and literature—law, psychoanalysis, architecture, anthropology, theology, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, political theory, historiography, and film theory. There are three important point to be note down,
Meaning of a word is purely arbitrary
Meaning are relational
Language constructs our words and words gives us worldview
So, the point is that, the meaning of the word was given by the people who have authority. And now also it happens that, the privilege makes such an announcement it becomes the final statement about that.
When some people argue that, Is deconstruction a negative term ? Here Derrida gives the answer, it's not exactly a negative term. Because it's not a destructive activity. It's not something breaking down for the sake of destruction. But what Derrida is doing is inquiring into the condition or what causes a philosophical system to stand on its feet and fall down. So what are the conditions which make a philosophical or intellectual system possible. He inquired into the condition and why something cannot be defined. So he said that deconstruction is not destructive activity, but an inquiry into the foundations. That is why it is not a negative term.
We can say that the seeds of deconstruction sprouted from Heidegger. Heidegger along with Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzche are three important thinkers which Derrida acknowledges in his famous essay structures and it's play and the ideas in these philosophers are in many ways continued by Derrida.
According to Saussure the relationship between a word and its meaning is not natural but it's a conventional one. Derrida said that any word can be used to talk about anything technically. But what connects a word with its meaning or a signal with its meaning is the convention and convention is always social. Meaning of a word is usually thought of as something in our mind according to Saussure. But Derrida deconstructs the idea of arbitrariness. According to Derrida, arbitrariness means any word can be used to talk about anything. The relationship between the word and it's meaning is not natural but it's a conventional one. any word can be used to talk about anything technically. But what connects a word with its meaning or a signal with its meaning is the convention and convention is always social. Meaning of a word is usually thought of as something in our mind according to Saussure. But Derrida points out that the meaning of the word is nothing but the other word. This is how he deconstructs the idea of arbitrariness.
Another important fact about the deconstruction is Yale University. The Yale university has played a very important role in propagation of Derrida's ideas. Deconstruction going into Yale became a kind of real new thing. There are four people who are associated with this school, 1.Paul de Man, 2. J. Hillis Miller, 3.Harold Bloom, 4.Geoffrey Hartman. These four people made deconstruction very popular and unpopular in America. People know them as the Yale Hermeneutic Mafia. But all of them are different in their occupations in preoccupation with literary criticism. But first time deconstruction became a school of literary criticism because of Yale. So Yale school is responsible for bringing deconstruction in literary criticism in a big way !!
In a way Deconstruction is not a term that destroys the meaning, but it gives us ideas to think differently. There is famous lines,
"Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique"
It means language plays a very vital role in understanding the meaning.
"There is no truth outside the language"
Language is important and a privilege of authority. People in power can define the term and that becomes right. If we talk about the privilege of one word over other word we find these examples,
Good - Bad
Day - Night
Men - women
God - Evil
Speech - Writing
Presence - Absence
Identity - Difference
Fullness - Emptiness
Life - Death
Lightless - Darkness
Teacher - Student
The privilege words seem more powerful than other words.
When we observe anything, for example we see the cow. What comes to our mind is
It's animal,
A cow that has four legs,
It gives us milk.
If we look for the binary opposition of cow we see the sweet beef, that can be used as food. The cow is seen as more spiritual and religious rather than beef. So here we can understand that the meaning of anything is dependent on what we have taught about that particular thing. And when we see that thing we automatically remember it's characteristics in our mind. But it is also important to see where we seeing that particular thing. Because the meaning of that thing will change with the place. Let's take another example of duster. If you will say I want to buy a duster, then we have to see first where we are now ? It matters a lot, because the meaning of duster will change if we are not at stationary shop ! If I'm at car showroom the duster means a brand of a car and if I'm at stationary shop and classroom the duster means a cloth or brush For dusting furniture. So the meaning of a word dependent on where we are !
And if we talk about the positive and negative meaning, what gives word positivity or negativity is the recurrent use of a word in context. Words are not positive or negative, this is the meaning; what we can give to them.
Examples :-
Here I want to give some examples of some advertisements, in which we see that what they should be and what actually they are.
1] ply Advertisement :-
When I was looking at this ad, I thought this ad would focus on the dhongi Baba, who eats non veg. Instead the ad was about ply of furniture. I also thought that this advertisement should show the fakeness of that dhongi Baba, but the advertisement was about the green ply ! As we see with the deconstructive reading we find the advertisement uses food as center point. We also believe that religious peoples and associated with any religion were not supposed to eat meat. We believe that some culture uses meat as their food, they are not considered as pure peoples. In this case we see that some culture have meat as their major dish. Here the food is taken as signifier. So in this way we can do deconstruction of this advertisement.
2] All Out :-
While watching this advertisement I thought this is about teaching moral values to the boy. But by the end of the ad we can see that the ad is about All Out. The daughter in law is silent in the ad. All her family members treated her badly, but she didn't say a word to them, because she understands everything. At the end we come to know that, this is All out, that can give us an idea to stand by tough mom. Because if you take the side of children they are not going to learn all the things. This also we have seen in R. K. Narayan's story "Crime and Punishment". Parents and family members play a very very important role in building moral values in children's mind. Here we can see the binary oppositions of privilege of man over woman. At one point it also shows the privilege of rich over poor.
Here we see the way of teaching child. Some parents become very soft towards their children. In the ad all family members are opposed to the daughter in law, because she is becoming very strict towards her son. Then the father in law stand by her. So this is the victory of #patriarchy over #support mom ! So this is can be the deconstructive reading of the ad.
3] Maggie Masala Rishton ka Swad :-
Maggi Masala was once the talk of town. Advertisements are also going viral. This ad was about Maggi Masala, but it teaches a very important lesson. It doesn't speak about changing our thinking, but instead it satire on that thinking and without telling anything it tells everything. When we talk about the freedom of women, we find there are many womens who want to do jobs and become financially free. But after marriage her husband doesn't give her permission and her dreams are destroyed, what she has studied for. Why did it happen ? Because there are many people who are educated fellows. Yes, the thinking of people still belongs to the 18th century. They don't want women to be free financially. Because their power will be shared or parted. So we have to change that thinking pattern. The dominance of male over fimale also seen in the advertisement.
4] Zigy Television Commercial :-
Well, in the starting dialogue I thought this ad was about a daughter taking care of her mother. But this is not so. The girl was not her daughter but she is her daughter - in - law. Her son and daughter - in - law did divorce. But the relations between the girl and her mother in law are still that much stronger. This is what I thought about the ad. But the ad is about healthcare products to buy online for Women and babies. The relations between mother in law and daughter in law is like they haven't understanding in between (this is what we think and seen in television), but that though is breaking here by this advertisement. There is always missing the understanding between Sasu and Vahu. So a Vahu is taking care of her Sasu even she had divorce is the other meaning which we find here.
5] Proud to Pay Tax (Quicko.com) :-
This is quite an interesting ad. While watching the ad it seems like the boy is very much conscious about water and it's problem. So I thought this ad was about saving water. But the ad is about online financial services Quicko.com. It also says that we have to pay tax online and on time and to be proud of that. It also gives information how to pay tax online.
If we think deeply we come to know that there are peoples who don't pays tax. When the tax was payed by citizens, it should be used in good events rather than using it in very absurd things. So here we arise the question that who is misusing fund of tax payers ? So we are not seeing the system that works behind it. That we have to question here.
