문학 이후: 데리다의 해체론과 미국 문학이론

After Literature : Derridean Deconstruction and the Literary Theories in America

  This paper tries to think about the cultural implication of Derridean deconstruction in the American intellectual milieu, especially taking issue of the concept of “literature” in the context of American-bred deconstructive criticism represented by Paul de Man. Delving into the complex process of theoretical transplantation, I analyse how philosophical claims of Derridean deconstruction came to be popular among literary critics in the United States, rather than in the field of philosophical debates. In America there has been a strong philosophical tradition of positivism, pragmatism, and the philosophy of language, and against these native traditions Paul de Man bravely articulates and develops the theoretical necessity of deconstructive criticism. In so doing, however, de Man also extends, even distorts, the spirit of Derridean deconstruction by unnecessarily ontologizing some key concepts and tenets of deconstruction as theoretical weapons for repeatedly performing self-reflexive acts of literary deconstruction. As it turns out, de Man"s literary deconstruction tends to presuppose an unremovable rhetorical contradiction or instability within the text and tries to show that every text is in its own way, always already, a self-deconstructive empty space. In contrast, Stanley Cavell"s theory of reading is much closer to Derridean deconstructive move in that it does not presuppose any kind of a priori structural nihilism, positive or negative. Overall, the lesson of the transplantation of Derrida"s deconstruction might be that a creative theory of reading is still needed in the work of deconstruction despite critical reflections on the literary iconoclasm of deconstructive criticism in America.