Deconstructionism was founded by a French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, who created the term deconstruction for literature. His theory is that in Western culture, people tend to think and express their thoughts in terms of binary oppositions. People also tend to favour one term over the other and associate one term as good and the other bad.
Some examples are:
- White or Black, Male or Female, Cause and Effect, and etc.
Deconstructionists don’t want to change the hierarchies created but, put an end to binaries or binary thinking altogether. By stopping binaries it can create new possibilities for cultures. This literary criticism was created as a response for structuralism and formalism.
Deconstructionists aim to:
- make literature and culture more inclusive, where one term isn’t superior to another
- criticize Western culture
Marxist Literary Theory 