Against Deconstruction

(Paperback)

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"The focus of any genuinely new piece of criticism or interpretation must be on the creative act of finding the new, but deconstruction puts the matter the other way around: its emphasis is on debunking the old. But aside from the fact that this program is inherently uninteresting, it is, in fact, not at all clear that it is possible...[T]he naivete of the crowd is deconstruction's very starting point, and its subsequent move is as much an emotional as an intellectual leap to a position that feels different as much in the one way as the other..." --From the book

Reviews

"Ellis argues with force and clarity... [He] concludes that what Deconstruction provides is largely an emotional bonus--it gives its adherents 'a routine way to a feeling of being excitedly shocking.' They get the feeling that might attend a genuine piece of original thinking, but here it can be achieved without comparable effort."--London Review of Books