How to Deconstruct a text

How to Deconstruct a text

 This blog is based on thinking task which is about Derrida and Deconstruction it is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. Department of English, MKBU.

Deconstruction Theory is given by Jacques deridda, the theory is also known as Derridean theory. It emerged in the 1960s, and has influenced many other academic fields like history, philosophy, literature, anthropology etc.

This theory of structuralism, which came afterwads and which studies about the structure of language and culture. Where Derrida trys to critic and try to give a different meanings which is a conventional one. According to Derrida the language is a free play and one can give multiple  meanings to the words. Deconstruction happens only from the text. 

The meaning of the words changes according to the context for instance we can give example like, William H. Calvin Quote: “You can always spot the pioneers by the arrows in their backs" which says the metaphorical meaning where one is doing his work good and the people will try to draw him down because of jealously.

And however if we try to see historically than it shows it is related to American History. When the colonization happened the colonizers were enriching their boundaries in America, where the Native people were fighting against them for saving their land with ows and arrows in these way it creates two different meanings.

Lets try to see the meaning of the three poems in their different context. 

First Poem of Ezra Pound :  'In a Station of Metro'

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough. (Pound, 1913)

Analysis of the Poem :

Image generated from Ideogram

In the  poem where firstly, the above image generated tells that one side there is metro station surrouded with human beings and the Nature. The poem of Ezra Pound shows the binary oppositions of the modern world and the Nature. If we try to see in the image there is lack of noise in the crowd which is missing. And there is anonymity of people according to the word "apparition"  suggests us in the poem which is seen in the first line of the poem. And in the second line of the poem where the petals are visible on the branches. 

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

Analysis of the Poem :

Image generated from Ideogram

In this poem firstly it seems about farm where there is dirt filled with mud, cowdung and glazed with rain water which is not found in the image of the poem and it looks like the imge is taken from a textbook which is imitated in the poem shows the imges of chickens and red wheelbarrow. 
And however it does not show the reality of the poem which should be related to the farm and it hides the reality of the farmer. And it also shows the differences between rural life and the urban life.


3rd Poem : 
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?


Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
BY Willam Shakespeare's 



Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.


# Here's a deconstructive analysis of Sonnet 18:

_Challenging the notion of eternal beauty:_

- The poem claims the beloved's beauty is eternal, but what does that mean?
- Is beauty ever truly eternal, or is it just a cultural construct?
- The poem relies on traditional notions of beauty, but what about unconventional beauty?

_Problematising the comparison to a summer's day:_

- Why compare the beloved to a summer's day, which is inherently fleeting?
- Does this comparison reinforce the idea that beauty is temporary?
- What about the darker aspects of summer, like heatwaves and droughts?

# Unpacking the power dynamics: 

- Who is speaking, and who is being spoken about?
- Is the speaker objectifying the beloved, or genuinely praising them?
- What about the beloved's agency and autonomy?

# Questioning the notion of "eternal lines": 

- Can poetry truly capture eternal beauty, or is it just a claim?
- What about the impermanence of language and art?
- Does the poem's own existence undermine its claims about eternity?

# Exposing the cultural biases:

- The poem reflects a Western, patriarchal perspective on beauty
- What about non-Western or non-patriarchal notions of beauty?
- How does the poem's language and imagery reinforce or challenge these biases?

# Highlighting the tensions between nature and art:

- The poem juxtaposes natural beauty (summer) with artistic beauty (the poem itself)
- What about the relationship between nature and art?
- Does the poem suggest that art can surpass nature, or vice versa?

Deconstructive analysis reveals the complexities, contradictions, and cultural biases within the poem. It challenges the reader to think critically about the ideas and assumptions presented, and to consider alternative perspectives.

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