Construction: The grammar of breaking convention/ বিনির্মাণ : প্রথা ভাঙার ব্যাকরণ

Abstract

The aim of deconstruction is to undermine the foundations of concepts such as center, truth, presence, and finality. According to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Deconstruction unravels the seams of stable objects; it sends tremors through the seemingly well-established grounds of knowledge. Deconstruction is thus an active strategy of expressing discontent, discomfort, and scepticism toward any form of structural stability. Wherever there arises a binary opposition—such as primary/secondary, essential/non-essential, true/false, good/bad, centre/ periphery, high/low—where one term is privileged over the other as if it were naturally superior or self-evidently true, and where a narrative seeks to assert any kind of finality, deconstruction intervenes to question, destabilize, and expose the hollowness of such foundations.

          Those who have been marginalized or suppressed to uphold these central or dominant categories become relevant again in the eyes of the deconstructionist. As Spivak notes, The essential question of deconstruction is: for the sake of proving something, what was left out? In a deconstructive reading of any text, these binary layers tend to collapse into each other. This is why Terry Eagleton described deconstruction as “reading against the grain.”

           Of course, there is no rigid methodology in deconstruction. The field of deconstruction has expanded greatly through the works of Derrida’s contemporaries and successors. Yet, in all its forms, the primary goal of deconstruction remains to unseat the established.

Deconstruction views any notion of finality or stability with a sceptical eye—and does not stop at mere critique. It actively seeks to displace and undo such structures.

          And finally, it must also be mentioned that in our discussion, we have not only explored the theory of deconstruction, but have also attempted to understand its relevance through a comparative analysis between Western philosophical traditions and Indian philosophical thought.