Deconstruction Quote by Jacques Derrida
““Every sign, linguistic or nonlinguistic, spoken or written (in the usual sense of this opposition), as a small or large unity, can be cited, put between quotation marks; thereby it can break with every given context, and engender infinitely new contexts in an absolutely nonsaturable fashion. This does not suppose that the mark is valid outside its context, but on the contrary that there are only contexts without any center of absolute anchoring. This citationality, duplication, or duplicity, this iterability of the mark is not an accident or anomaly, but is that (normal/abnormal) without which a mark could no longer even have a so-called “normal” functioning. What would a mark be that one could not cite? And whose origin could not be lost on the way?””
About This Quote
Source Book: Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida, 1967
Language signs can be detached from original contexts, creating endless new meanings, showing that meaning is never fixed.
In simple terms: Signs can be taken out of context to make new meanings.
Key Takeaway
Embrace flexibility in interpretation.
Themes
language
meaning
context
interpretation
Mood
intellectual
provocative
Type
philosophical
theoretical
When to use this quote
- literary analysis
- philosophical debate
- teaching
- writing
- art criticism
Key Concepts
deconstruction
iterability
citation
contextuality
Questions to Reflect On
- How does detaching signs affect communication?
- When does endless reinterpretation become unproductive?
A Different Perspective
It may lead to relativism, making shared meaning harder to achieve.
![“I took ethics classes in college, and it always amazes me how they [tabloids] will blatantly say something that I did not say, in quotation marks. The first thing that we learned in ethics is that you better have it right. If you're putting quotation marks around something, it better be exactly…” quote by Carrie Underwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9d3/carrie-underwood-1449_class_i-took-ethics-classes-in-college-and-it_72801.jpg)
![“I'm telling you, I could teach at a university, [George] Carlin, a whole semester. The construction and deconstruction of the words, the language, the order.” quote by Jay Mohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/af2/jay-mohr-4777_construction_i-m-telling-you-i-could-teach-at-a-unive_29549.jpg)
