Deconstructionism
A term tied very closely to postmodernism, deconstructionism
is a challenge to the attempt to establish any ultimate or secure
meaning in a text. Basing itself in language analysis, it seeks
to "deconstruct" the ideological biases (gender, racial,
economic, political, cultural) and traditional assumptions that
infect all histories, as well as philosophical and religious "truths."
Deconstructionism is based on the premise that much of human history,
in trying to understand, and then define, reality has led to various
forms of domination - of nature, of people of color, of the poor,
of homosexuals, etc. Like postmodernism, deconstructionism finds
concrete experience more valid than abstract ideas and, therefore,
refutes any attempts to produce a history, or a truth. In other
words, the multiplicities and contingencies of human experience
necessarily bring knowledge down to the local and specific level,
and challenge the tendency to centralize power through the claims
of an ultimate truth which must be accepted or obeyed by all.
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