Deconstruction: A Reader

Rating:
Summary: What is deconstruction?
Review: Deconstruction has been a hot topic for many years, and everyone has been creating a buzz around 'it.' But what exactly is deconstruction? Well it's not a literary theor or a practice. It is an all encompassing word that can be replaced by any number of words that have an unequal but similar meaning: supplementarity, allegory, etc. This book provides a good introduction to the many facets of Deconstruction that allows us to think of this term and all that it encompasses. The introduction is especially good and gives a person a quick overview of the work if you know nothing about it. In addition, the essays in the book are not readily understandable at first read but is a great work to slowly meander through the paragraphs and deconstruct any meaning that you can for yourself. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: What is deconstruction?
Review: Deconstruction has been a hot topic for many years, and everyone has been creating a buzz around 'it.' But what exactly is deconstruction? Well it's not a literary theor or a practice. It is an all encompassing word that can be replaced by any number of words that have an unequal but similar meaning: supplementarity, allegory, etc. This book provides a good introduction to the many facets of Deconstruction that allows us to think of this term and all that it encompasses. The introduction is especially good and gives a person a quick overview of the work if you know nothing about it. In addition, the essays in the book are not readily understandable at first read but is a great work to slowly meander through the paragraphs and deconstruct any meaning that you can for yourself. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Deconstruction Revealed
Review: Martin McQuillan has complied groups of related essays that illuminate the often dark and mysterious topic of deconstruction. While not for the faint of heart, Deconstruction: A Reader begins with an introduction by McQuillan which is one of the best overviews of deconstuction around. Easy to read and simple to follow, McQuillan's intro leads the reader through labrynthine complexities while defining all the tricky terms as they appear. Continual references to essays within the book also make it easy to find the essay that most interests you. With the deconstructive project deciphered, a wealth of perspective knowledge is contained in the 50+ essays. Organized by field of interest -- philosophy, literature, culture, etc.. -- the effects of deconstruction can easily be examined within each section. I particularly enjoy the first section which contains essays by Freud, Marx, Heidegger and more. These snipits from larger works enlighten the reader of deconstruction's precursors -- how can you know where you are going if you don't know where you can from? The remaining sections are brilliantly framed by opening and closing remarks from the daddy of deconstruction: Derrida. While many of the essays are deeply intellectual and profound, many are accessible with the information presented in the intro, but after the easier essays are understood and internalized, the more difficult ones become available.
Overall, this reader is a great overview of the deconstructive project and it's implications. For beginners, the intro cannot be raved about enough. It is helpful in the extreme. For more advanced deconstruction theorists, the essays provide a deconstructive perspective on many issues and in many ways. For anybody that writes on or is interested in the subject, I highly recommend this "handbook."