/lit/ - Literature

What is the most difficult book you have ever had to read for a class?

Hey /lit/, i have some problems understanding Deconstruction, so can someone tell me what is it?

As far as I know, it states that symbols are constructions made out of the presumptions of what they are like. I mean, for example the hero, is just a preconceived symbol that covers certain features based on the presumptions of how a hero has to be like. So if we tried to look into this symbol, we would end up in the same place. For example, according to this, if we analysed "the hero" by studying its basic features (male, vigorous, etc.) we would realise that there is this idea because of the previous ideas established on literature. It's like there was an internal feedback. At the same time there is and there is (because we use them) and there is not (because they are invented) such symbols. So doing this Deconstruction is absurd since we end up in the same place. This would be this 'aporia' or 'apory' where we can not move forward nor backwards, being this the limitation of Deconstruction.

Sorry if i didnt myself completely clear but I am not sure if it is like this or how it is applied practically to the interpretation of texts. So any help on this would be appreciated.

>The idea behind deconstruction is to deconstruct the workings of strong nation-states with powerful immigration policies, to deconstruct the rhetoric of nationalism, the politics of place, the metaphysics of native land and native tongue. . . . The idea is to disarm the bombs . . . of identity that nation-states build to defend themselves against the stranger, against Jews and Arabs and immigrants, . . . all of whom . . . are wholly other.

>- John D. Caputo

Seeing as the deconstructivism of Judeo-Marxist thinkers like Derrida is specifically aimed to undermine traditional social institutions and structures, can one deconstruct the deconstructions of people like Derrida in order to undermine Cultural Marxist beliefs?

>Foucault helped to secure Derrida's release from prison, when he was arrested on false charges in Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s.

Derrida is the greatest and most exciting thinker of the 20th century