Read a text

In the most simple and general terms, deconstruction in the Derridean sense means to read a text according to a certain way or strategy, a precise and careful strategy, but also one that shakes the ground under one's feet.

It is a praxis in which Derrida specifically aims to transform philosophical, linguistic, theological, or aesthetic texts. Deconstruction shows us the possibility of continually ascribing different or additional meanings to texts; it acknowledges the fundamental ambiguity of signs and texts and the impossibility of controlling them. Deconstruction implies transplantation, the ability to remove a sign or text from its present context to another context. In this way, deconstruction highlights the heterogeneity of a sign or a text. It wants to show the impossibility of a (sign-)system to close, to arrive at a definite meaning. Of course, attempts to demarcate meanings take place all the time, but the demarcations are based on conventions and are always tentative ('for the time being').

Transplantation. But transplantation also always means transformation. Deconstruction establishes a transgression, a shifting of meaning that in turn is never definitive. There is no expectation of a final moment of truth. Rather, there is an ongoing process of the shifting of rules that govern the relationships among (the elements of) systems. A short example. We write, and in this writing there is a potential for rewriting. Transformation implies that 'change' is a change in way of meaning - a becoming. See Cobussen.