Theory Postmortem

Abstract

Jacques Derrida is dead. To many in the world, this man was the greatest abuser of common sense in history. The term “deconstruction” has become synonymous with a declaration of war on what is common in the language of each one of us. In reading and rewriting the words of scholars, philosophers, journalists, linguists, novelists, poets, and every kind of verbal magician, Derrida turned them on their heads—destroyed them in the view of some, reconstructed them in the view of others. He was a trickster constantly playing jokes on his readers, yet the key to the joke was that you were never quite sure that it was a joke, and if you were convinced, you were never sure if the joke was on you. Maybe the joke was on him.