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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
It's not my intention to carp, Hamlet, but no everyone has lost all interest in deconstruction, I think - though I certainly did a few years back.Still, I think I can recall something germane to this student's assignment (who's giving assignments like this these days - geez!).
As I recall, deconstructionists were more interested in the inability to pin language down and determine a "certain" meaning for it - and not just language, but any semiotic entity, up to and including one's own "identity."
In Hamlet, the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy might be a good place to apply some deconstructionist interpretive tactics: Hamlet's inaction here and throughout (in particular, later when he decides not to kill Claudius at his prayers) results in large part from his desire to determine some stable ground of meaning on which to pursue action. In order to decide to do something drastic, he's got to be certain - ABSOLUTELY certain - first.
Problem is, you can never be absolutely certain - as Hamlet himself finds out. Sometimes you've just got to do something, even if you can't decipher all the angles. Deconstructionists provide theories about why this is so that might prove illuminating here.
Posted by Miranda on March 24, 1997 at 13:48:20
In Reply to "Deconstruct" posted by Hamlet on March 23, 1997 at 12:03:50
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help