Deconstruction and Secularism: World, Text and Politics of Meaning

Abstract

Concepts may be born in a specific text but they quickly take on a life of their own: to borrow from Gilles Deleuze, they may move between texts, find new life, sometimes prosper and occasionally die. This paper attempts to examine the space in which the conflict between concepts and reality takes shape by providing a comparison between the ideas of Edward Said and Derrida's deconstruction. Said's approach of "secular criticism" plays a crucial role in filling the shortcomings of Derrida's deconstructionist ideas, all of which were originally born from his ideas of difference . This paper also addresses the problematic of how texts interact with the wider world; their relationship to language; the roles of both author and reader in this regard; the politics of the creation of meaning, particular in literary texts; and the relationship of the text to the power of production.