Postmodern Deconstruction Research Articles

Deconstruction and Subversion: The French Lieutenant's Woman under the Perspective of Postmodern Deconstruction

Postmodernism is a movement that begins in the 20th century. The movement involves many fields, such as philosophy, art, and literature. The novel The French Lieutenant's Woman is a novel which was born in that period. As a metafiction, it has the feature of deconstruction that can be seen in the structures of the novel. At the same time, the deconstruction can be seen in the plots of the novel as well. The novel can be regarded as a typical work of postmodernism and deconstructionism. And this paper focuses mainly on reveling various deconstruction phenomena in the novel and tries to help readers to understand metafiction and deconstructionism better.

INTERPRETATION OF THE PHENOMENON OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN POSTMODERNISM AND METAMODERNISM

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the interpretation of the phenomenon of social control in postmodernism and metamodernism. The similarities and differences in the description of social control mechanisms are identified. The concepts of “society of the spectacle” (G.Debord), “society of surveillance” (M.Foucault) and “society of control” (J. Deleuze) are analyzed, which show the evolution of postmodernists’ views on social processes.. The concept of the “listening society” (G.Freinacht) as a metamodern alternative to the development of modern society is presented. Postmodernism focuses on criticizing society, drawing attention to its increasing fragmentation, the crisis of metanarratives, and the growing role of the media as a tool for social control. In contrast, metamodernism tries to balance modern and postmodern theories, recognizing the importance of centralized and decentralized forms of social control. This allows simultaneously taking into account the diversity of identities of a modern person and the possibility of his or her integration into society through the adoption of common norms and rules. Metamodernism seeks to reconstruct metanarratives that can contribute to new forms of social control based on cooperation and common interests. It emphasizes the importance of empathy in social control, whereas postmodernism rejects it as a false, simulated form of social relations. While postmodernism focuses more on critical analysis of existing structures, metamodernism aims to find hybrid and adaptive forms of control that combine traditional methods with the latest technologies. All these differences in the interpretation of the phenomenon of social control reflect the paradigm shift from postmodern deconstruction to synthesis and reconstruction within metamodernism.

Patient-oriented research and the shiny object syndrome.

Patient-oriented research and the shiny object syndrome.

Musicking Assemblages and the Material Contingency of Sound: Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s Re-enactment of Kind of Blue

ABSTRACT This paper provides an in-depth cultural analysis of the album Blue, by Mostly Other People Do the Killing – a detailed, note-for-note recreation of Miles Davis’s jazz classic, Kind of Blue. While the group’s undertaking has been widely regarded as a postmodern deconstruction of genre and history, this paper adopts a new materialist framework to demonstrate how the re-enactment makes perceptible the material contingency of sound and music. Focusing on the processes of emergence, it argues that Blue calls attention to the material-energetic flows that underlie both the production and reception of music. As such, the album might encourage us to rethink the notion of musical works via a materialist model of intensive forces and their immanent capture within musicking assemblages.

THE UTILITY OF THE POST-MODERN DECONSTRUCTION PROCESS IN THE REALM OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

This paper seeks to explore and challenge widely held notions surrounding the utility of postmodernist deconstruction within the realm of the social sciences. Beginning with a defence of the inclusion or rather by building a case for the inclusion of postmodernist modes of enquiry in the social sciences (specifically in this case; political science), this paper builds on the historical utility of the deconstruction process as well as mapping out its perceived utility in contemporary political theory as well as charting out its importance in the analysis of international relations and global affairs. Lastly, this paper also seeks to understand how the utilisation of Derridean deconstruction (often widely held to be the most important of all post-modernist modes of enquiry) in the creation of post-colonial and post-structuralist discourse possesses the potential to create bodies of knowledge that are not rooted in or wholly reliant on positivist logic or discourse, a characteristic that is inarguably important in the contemporary era.

Trans Issues? Beyond a Hermeneutic of Mutilation

This article questions whether the ‘problem’ of trans issues lies more in the binary, patriarchal structures of our society than it does in our bodies. I utilize Marcella Althaus-Reid’s ‘Hermeneutic of Mutilation’, arguing that, much as ‘to give hospitality to our own fragmentations may require sometimes acts of transformations’, we must not support the heteropatriarchal pattern and system as it attempts to normalize, police, control or punish the ‘deviant’ bodies of transgender individuals, from ‘wrong’ and ‘less than’ into ‘right’ and ‘cured’. As postmodern deconstruction has informed and influenced our thinking around identity, the modern, biological approach to sex/gender has been profoundly challenged. I will make a parallel between current debates around trans issues and disability, body and liberation theology; if disability only ‘becomes’ a disability when the able-bodied majority designates it as ‘other’, are trans folk being similarly ‘othered’, as their different bodies, perspectives or identities challenge the fearful, defended mind-sets of society? Should we continue to prioritize ‘fixing’ trans bodies, in order to have them fit more neatly within that society? Or, should we challenge the patriarchal, heteronormative moulds of a culture that would rather trans individuals ‘accept’ their ‘wrongness’ and take steps to ‘correct’ that wrongness? This is not to say that trans+ individuals should not continue to make exactly the same medical/surgical choices as are currently the norm and even to choose modes of gender expression that are binary or ‘traditional’, should that be their desire and choice. Rather, this is an appeal for all of us to challenge a society that deems some bodies ‘right’ and others as ‘wrong’, and expects such painful conformity.

Cybernetic Transgression and Diogenes Last Clay Jar

Since deconstruction has become the key concept of postmodern times, we have faced the phenomenon of digital reality, yet not fell completely under the that paradigm of deconstruction. There is still undecided status and destiny of traditional philosophy, as a unique way of perception and reflection - not in terms of applied methodology in comprehension of new digital world, but the very possibility of philosophy itself. This paper addresses the recent essential trend of social transformation toward quantified and digitalized mode in relation to very necessity of philosophical thought. The most praised and welcomed digitalization of every aspect of social and private life, leaves no territories for classic abstractions and reflections. Moreover, the transgression of digitalization is virulent in nature, considering virus - both cyber or biological - as an accelerator to virtualize the reality completely. By thus, virulence terminates the logic of being, the logic as a very background for philosophy. Given mentioned two trends - quantifying equalization and illogical virulence of recent cyber world, I argue for impossibility for abstract thoughts and notions to be shaped under new e-environment, so philosophy is no more of demand and destined to disappear. Thus, postmodern deconstruction, shaped up by cyber transgression still is an issue in process we have to leave with.

Virgo-Death: from The Little Show-Booth by Alexander Blok to The Mistress of Death and The Lover of Death by Boris Akunin

The image of Death, embodied in the image of a beautiful maiden, is considered in the article through the analysis of references in the novel diptych by B. Akunin The Mistress of Death and The Lover of Death (the Erast Fandorin series) to one of the most important primary sources, the drama by A. Blok The Little Show-Booth. The study shows that Akunin's method of deformation was replaced by a postmodern deconstruction with a splitting into two images, of Columbine and of Maiden-Death, each of which is dominated by one of the hypostases of the heroine of The Little Show-Booth. These transformations appeal in their development to the opposition in Akunin’s novels of two points of view on fate, dialectically interacting, which correlate with the adventurous exposition and with the inevitability of personal destiny idea, oriented towards the “classical” tradition. The result of the analysis is a new formula of the genre of Akunin's novels, since their poetics goes out of the ordinary framework of criminal literature, as a transgressive phenomenon in the field of mass literature, as postmodern novel, in which the uncertain intertextuality accentuates, align with plot details, the problem of heroes’ self-identity.

From the Bronze Soldier to the “Bloody Marshal”: Monument Wars and Russia’s Aesthetic Vulnerability in Estonia and the Czech Republic

The article analyzes historical monuments as instruments of Russia’s attempts to impose its aesthetic hegemony in the post-Communist world. Drawing on case studies from the Czech Republic and Estonia, it argues that this hegemony is precarious and vulnerable due to inability to deal with the inherent ambiguity and complexity of historical events and figures. The Russian approach regards historical truth in absolute terms and is underpinned by a zero-sum game understanding of historical narratives. It does not tolerate a multiplicity of perspectives on history and has no appreciation for postmodernist deconstruction of historical symbols. This conflicts with a more diverse, reflexive and inclusive politics of memory as an intrinsic element of cityscapes of Prague and Tallinn where some of the controversial monuments connected with the Soviet occupation have been removed. Russia’s reaction to these changes reveals an inherently vulnerable nature of its aesthetic hegemony which is deeply dependent on recognition of the absolute nature of its historical truth that the monuments are supposed to embody.

Deconstruction as Repair

Deconstruction as Repair: An ecological perspective on the Six Viewpoints is a co-authored article by Josh Armstrong and Meryl Murman. The writing is carried by the personal and subjective experiences of the authors aiming to understand how postmodern deconstruction is an act of ecological repair. The experiences and thoughts that arise are informed by ecological and postmodern philosophy, by Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints — both as phenomenological and philosophical theory and practice — and culminate in reflections on practice-led research through the facilitation of becoming-Botanical somatic movement laboratories. Drawing on the personal observations and reflections from regular participants in weekly somatic movement laboratories held in New Orleans from the Summer of 2018 through the Autumn of 2019, including a residential retreat in rural Mississippi, this article focuses on the restorative qualities which emerge as common themes. According to Overlie, the proper deconstruction of the Six Viewpoints should not be confused with ‘mistaken postmodernism’ and the resulting deconstruction that appears as collage, pastiche or Kitsch Art. Overlie’s deconstruction emphasizes the need for a sharp tool and an observant mind to disassemble the materials of performance with a view to better understand them and ultimately to free them from the hierarchical structures that act upon them. This is not a deconstruction of demolition or damage, but of discovering that which was once hidden or unknown — a process of reification that Overlie champions as the basis for both art and science. Through the becoming-Botanical movement laboratories, we apply this performance-based deconstruction in contexts outside of theatre and performance and find that the Six Viewpoints as phenomenological and somaesthetic training can enable participants to mend psychic and emotional relationships with more-than-human life and make reparations and preparations for the inevitable end of the world.

Transhumanism, Posthumanism, And The “Cyborg Identity”

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief analysis of two confusable philosophical positions, Transhumanism and Posthumanism, and compare their approaches in terms of their social and ecological concerns through an examination of Donna Haraway’s “cyborg identity.” Haraway introduces a ground-breaking approach in A Cyborg Manifesto and her later works, which blurs the formerly defined, distinct categories and identities that underlie the oppression of animals, humans, men, women, machines etc. By using postmodernist deconstruction, she wants to challenge Western dualisms and all kinds of oppression it causes. While Transhumanists, who inherit anthropocentrism from Humanism, support technological advancement to enhance the human condition, Posthumanists draw attention to the harms of the anthropocentric approach in terms of social and ecological justice and offer a more comprehensive and compassionate approach to other species inhabiting the planet. Since both Transhumanists and Posthumanists promote enhancement, Transhumanists need Posthumanist insights to really enhance the human condition concerning her environment.

ГЛОБАЛІЗАЦІЯ ЯК ФОНОВИЙ ЧИННИК ЗОВНІШНЬОГО ВПЛИВУ В ПЕРЕХОДІ ВІД МОДЕРНУ ДО ПОСТМОДЕРНУ

<p><strong><em>The purpose of </em></strong><em>the study is to construct a descriptive characteristic of globalization as a background factor of the external influence of societies that are cultural leaders in relation to societies that are objects of external influence. </em></p><p><strong><em>Research methods.</em></strong><em> Methodological support of the study is based on the use of general scientific methods of cognition of social phenomena and processes (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, typology, extrapolation, operationalization, interpretation, abstraction, generalization, as well as methods of logical-historical, systemic, comparative and structural-functional ). Using the logical-historical method, the characteristics of globalization as a background factor of external influence of societies are studied; method of typological analysis – the signs of cultural and standardization factors of globalist leadership are analyzed. </em></p><p><strong><em>Results. </em></strong><em>It is determined that the deepening of postmodernist deconstruction includes, first of all, the creation of unstable states with unstable cultural systems. In structuring the social order, globalist actors propose the subordination of cultural systems to external subjects and the final erosion of cultural statics in favor of subjectless cultural dynamics. It is noted that social statics, which is a cultural order, rests on subjectivity, while postmodernism spreads the notion of subjectless dynamics. This means shifting research emphasis from structures to the processes and "flows" of spontaneous cultural creation. It is determined that such a paradigm makes it possible to blur the authorship of the relevant cultural influences and remove all restrictions in the field of censorship and filtering of cultural meanings. It is clear that the current and procedurally impersonal picture of the cultural and social world is spreading in those societies that are the targets of neo-colonization and infiltration of external agents. </em></p><p><strong><em>Novelty. </em></strong><em>The article constructs a descriptive description of globalization as a background factor of external influence of societies that are cultural leaders, in relation to societies that are objects of external influence. The construction was carried out by determining the cultural and standardization factors of globalist leadership and the consequences of globalist cultural projects for unstable societies.</em></p><p><strong><em>Practical meaning. </em></strong><em>The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the enrichment of Ukrainian sociology with theoretical and methodological substantiation of the term "globalization" as a background factor of external influence in the modern and postmodern period.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words: </em></strong><em>globalization, external influence, cultural hegemony, cultural references, identity, diffusion, fragmentation.</em></p>

Parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography

Lately, the research of Parody film as a part of film discourse have reached its peak in the history and philosophy of science. The polycode essence of the concept of film discourse prompts changes and modifications in the interpretation of Parody film. Therefore, the subject of this analysis is Parody film. The goal of this research consists in examination of the peculiarities, meaning, and role of the concept of “parody film”, which is a creative work intended to ridicule the plot through satirical or ironic imitation. Research methodology is based on the method of analytical study of sources for clarification of the logic and content of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, and “film discourse”, as well for revealing the essence of parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography. The article also employs the methods of comparative analysis and the concept of local cultures. The scientific novelty of this research consists in systematization of the existing knowledge on parody film in the light of film discourse, which being the phenomenon at the intersection of multiple disciplines is in the epicenter of scientific inquiries in linguistics, literary studies, sociolinguistics, philosophy of semiotics and film semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and theory of cinematography. The theoretical importance lies in characterization of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, “comedy”, “comedy film” in the context of modern knowledge of moviemaking and cinematography. The acquired results give a better perspective on the role of parody film in art and life of the society. The Interpreters fight for cinema, on the one hand adoring it as the art with unlimited capabilities, while on the other – neglecting the fact that it should need the unpretentious demands of the audience. The author claims that in a broad context, the parody film of the XXI century is not aimed at parodying a literary text. The filmmakers rather consider and use parody film as a means for drawing attention of various life circumstances.

Logical and Analogical Thinking

The contrast between logical and analogical thinking is illustrated by the representative views of Frege and Nietzsche. These ways of thinking turn out to be expressions of different ways of conceiving the world. They stand for two opposing traditions of contemporary philosophy: scientific-analytic philosophy and postmodern deconstruction. Based on Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, it is argued that neither of the two perspectives is absolute, but that both should complement each other.

Postmodern Deconstruction of Grand Narratives in Post-Cyberpunk Fiction through Thematic Analysis

The issue of identity and its representation is a constant phenomenon since the advent of humanity. Progressive waves of technological advancement in information technology have made the contemporary culture bombastic and dynamic, due to which identity and its representation have become complex. Identity and representation are no more inert; rather, they have become fluid and arbitrary phenomenon. Postmodernist literature does not only represent life and its related issue but also simultaneously deconstructs them to the core; hence there remain no center/margin dichotomies. This study is an analysis of different themes under the theoretical framework of Deconstruction of Metanarratives (1984) and Cybernetics (1948). The method of analysis is Deconstruction by Derrida (1967), from which the tool of intertextuality has helped the researchers to answer the research questions. Analysis of various themes such as Artificial Intelligence, Techno/Globalization, Cyborg, and Posthuman conclude that transition of identity is a repetitive facet of todays individual. Hence, there are no grand narratives of representations. Different identities such as race, gender, religion, human/machine, natural/artificial, physical/nonphysical, real/virtual, life/death have become contestable. This research proves that the deconstruction of metanarratives has given vent to the mini narratives.

Serious Play: Sir John Harington’s Material-Textual Errancy in Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse (1591)

Sir John Harington’s Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse (1591) is a significant example of material-textual Englishing: under the direction of Harington, his book’s emblematic title page, copperplate engravings, typography, mise-en-page, and commentary apparatus are all transmutations of the preeminent Italian editions of the sixteenth century, most notably Francesco de Franceschi’s lavish 1584 edition. This article traces how Harington cannily deploys his bibliographic code in metatextual and metavisual ways to call attention to how the material-textual manipulates the reader’s experience. In what could be called an act of early postmodern deconstruction, Harington playfully dismantles the edifying structures of pragmatic humanism in the same way that romance dissolves epic.

Opposing deconstruction: the value aspect of the theory of artistic wholeness

The article discusses the legacy of the literary critic M. Girshman, in particular, his book A Work of Literature. The Theory of Artistic Wholeness [Literaturnoe proizvedenie. Teoriya khudozhestvennoy tselostnosti] (2007), which argues the priority of the holistic and value-based approach to literary criticism over Postmodernist deconstruction practices. According to Girshman, the language of a literary work is an embodied and materialized aspect of aesthetic reality and beauty, incorporating the Truth and the Good. The scholar sees it as the ‘existential-semantic assumption’ of literary criticism. O. Minnullin defends Girshman’s method and challenges the ‘instrumental’ approach of ‘deconstructionist’ philologists, which he believes reduces the aesthetic space: significance in place of meaning; the discourse in place of the world; actions or simulation in place of existence; the scribe in place of the author; a construction or deconstruction in place of wholeness, etc. The article is written in response to the polemic reaction of ‘deconstructionists’ to V. Tyupa’s ‘Literary Theory Two’ As a Threat to Humanities, published in Voprosy Literatury in 2019.

AN ANALYSIS OF POST-CYBERPUNK AS A CONTEMPORARY POSTMODERNIST LITERATURE

This study is based on Post-cyberpunk in order to highlight the prominence of Postcyberpunk as an emerging representative genre of Postmodern Literature. Technological progress has altered the ontology of being a human in an era of information technology, thus this study aims to critically discuss the issues of id entity and representation. Although ample critical work has been done on genre Postcyberpunk yet this study is unique in a way that it is a collection of different discursive practices related to identity crises presented in selected Post-cyberpunk narratives. It targets to critically analyze the alternations and transformations in representation of identity in the backdrop of Postmodernist Deconstruction of Metanarratives by Lyotard (1984). Apart from the deconstruction of metanarratives this study signifies the relevance of Post-cyberpunk as Postmodernist Literature that represents society through multidimensional discursivity such as capitalism, hypercasaulization, imperialism, religion, economy and technology. This study aims to deconstruct the metanarratives of identity that were considered to be permanent and claimed to be power narratives. It equally represents the deconstruction of center/margin dichotomy by bringing mininarratives into the center. The method adopted for research is SocioCognitve Approach by van Dijk (2008) from Critical Discourse Analysis.

IS DECOLONIZATION OR REVITALIZATION OF EDUCATION NECESSARY IN POST-COLONIAL INDIA? A PHILOSOPHICAL INTROSPECTION

The material is to go back to the work of the master-academicians of British Rule and Post British Rule times. Some asked for radical change in the education system, like Rabindranath Tagore; but people like M. K. Gandhi were moderate and thought of self-sufficient education system. Many other academicians till date are figuring out new educational policies either to ‘decolonize’ or ‘revitalize’ Indian Education System; this being the Indian ‘post-modern deconstruction’ of rigid and orthodox being replaced by progressive and invigorating policies; not giving up the old but ‘revitalizing’ the old in new scenario.

Postmodern wreckage in Kate McIntosh’s Worktable and Peter McMaster’s Gold Piece

The important work of postmodern deconstruction turned the foundational authorities of our time -- truth, history, reason, the self and God -- to wreckage. A current body of ‘post-postmodern’ scholarship identifies a counteractive reconstructive impulse in contemporary artworks that consciously place postmodern cynicism, irony and relativity in paradoxical tension with anachronistic paradigms like hope, truth and God. In this article I look at two pieces – performance installation Worktable by Kate McIntosh and one-to-one performance Gold Piece by Peter McMaster – which, in their staging of wreckage, might be described as ‘post-postmodern’. I propose that they use the ‘scene’ of wreckage to pursue coherence as a state that is ‘in process’, that is worked towards even while it is ultimately unachievable. Drawing on theories of ‘thingness’ and ruins and using Ihab Hassan’s outline of postmodernism (Hassan 1981), I first explore how Gold Piece and Worktable are deconstructive, in both a material and semiotic sense, and therefore can be aligned with a postmodern mode. I then propose four ways in which the pieces are nevertheless reconstructive in terms of their view of wreckage as: a form of brokenness (distinct from ‘thingness’ and ruin) which instigates reconstructive work; an instigator of agency and an opportunity for renewal of the self; intimately linked to performance’s own capacity for reconstruction; an attempt at reconstructing—in the sense of ‘fixing’ or ‘making fast’—performance’s ephemerality. I finish by returning to post-postmodern theory to argue that the reconstructed objects which mark the end of the pieces are material symbols of an ‘impossible possibility’: the visible fault lines, imperfections and odd assemblages reveal the irrevocability, inevitability even, of breakage, yet, at the same time, point to an enthusiastic impulse to reconstruct, to restore and to work towards wholeness.