On Deconstruction

Jonathan Culler is Class of 1916 Professor of English at Cornell University. He is the author of many books, including On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism and The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction, both from Cornell University Press, and Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

• Preface to the 25th Anniversary EditionPreface to the First EditionIntroductionChapter One. Readers and Reading1. New Fortunes2. Reading as a Woman3. Stories of ReadingChapter Two. Deconstruction1. Writing and Logocentrism2. Meaning and Iterability3. Grafts and Graft4. Institutions and Inversions5. Critical ConsequencesChapter Three. Deconstructive CriticismBibliographyTranslations BibliographyBibliography for the 25th Anniversary EditionIndex

Academic literary criticism continues to be dominated by 'theory' and the struggle between deconstructionist and humanist approaches to the business of reading. Jonathan Culler's On Deconstruction is a typically patient, thoughtful, illuminating exposition of the ideas of Jacques Derrida and their application to literary studies.- David Lodge (Commonweal) As a practicing critic, Culler has always been a deconstructor, and he approaches this topic with special immediacy and force. In On Deconstruction, he offers generous summaries of numerous representative articles and a fine annotated bibliography.... His magisterial way of tracing particular topics and techniques through our diaspora of critical texts, and his provocative analyses, cannot fail to focus any critic's thinking about deconstruction.(Modern Language Quarterly) Culler is lucid and thorough, can move into and out of other people's arguments without losing the sense of his own voice and argument, and can manage to seem equally at home with Freudianism, feminism, and traditional literary criticism.(Times Literary Supplement) Gifted with grace and clarity, Culler provides us with a stimulating survey of contemporary literary criticism.(Antioch Review)