Skip to main content

IF I WERE A POST-STRUCTURALIST CRITIC...




Hello Readers,

This blog is a part of my Classroom activity given on this blog.

It is impossible to define Deconstruction like Philosophy or Literary criticism once and for all.  Jacques Derrida himself doesn’t define it. Deconstruction is not a destructive activity, but it is an inquiry into the foundations of everything. Post-Structuralist critics go deep into the foundation of text and then they try to undermine it. Derrida says that every text contains element which can deconstruct itself.

 As per Derrida,
 “Each and every text is read as event and events can be read with different perspective.”

He also throws light on free play of meaning. The meaning of one word is set of another word, so one word leads to another and so on. Derrida says “FINAL MEANING IS ALWAYS POSTPONED.”

 He also talks about Phonocentricism and logocentricism as well as Metaphysics of Presence. He denies western tendency to privilege speech over writing by giving examples of the Binary oppositions.


If I were a Post-Structuralist critic, I would like analyse the following advertisement of Coca-Cola:-


After watching this advertisement from the perspective of Derrida, we find many things are problematic.
 We find the binary oppositions like Urban/Rural, Vegetables/ Perennial grass, Car/Tractor, Western clothes/ Traditional Indian Clothes in this advertisement. The language itself is problematic here and it reflects these binary oppositions.

 For example: - The dialogue between two girls
Girl 1- “ Chal chal yaha puchte hain,Kya yahan pe cold drink milega?”(points out to farmer)
Girl 2- (making fun) “ Haan haan cold drink kyu, disco bhi puchte hai na idiot.”
This show how urban is privilege over rural. The girls think that a man of rural area won’t know about cold drink and disco.

 Another example:-  The farmer says,
“Ganne ke khet which tamatar kitho????”
This show how the tomato; vegetable is privilege over sugarcane; perennial grass. By this they are trying to look down on the people living in rural areas.
In starting also we see a ‘Tractor’ representing rural area and a ‘Car’ representing urban area. Similarly Clothes also signifies the differences.

 Now if we go deep inside,
It can be see that the Coco-Cola is an American multinational beverage corporation. So now we can see India in the binary side and America or western countries in the privilege side. The main occupation of India is agriculture. Here we can see that a farmer or in a way Indians are looked down by the western countries.
If the advertisement is looked without keeping Derrida in mind, People feel proud that see even farmers know about Coco-Cola. They will happily buy this product and they have.
Here we can see how the language is used by the power.


Thank you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mountains are calling and I must go… #AcademicTour #Junagadh #2019

The Mountains are calling and I must go… Recently I had a delightful experience of visiting Junagadh for Academic tour organized by Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. Being a Research Scholar and a Faculty member, this was my first tour in a different role. It is said that a physician treats but nature heals. It is absolutely true. Stuck in health issues for so many months, and finally the mountains were calling and I had to go. I feel rejuvenate after this trip. The best part about academic tour is that you not only visit historical and important places, but you visit so many academic Institutions, meet so many learned teachers and students. This tour was planned for two days; 5 th and 6 th February. We started on 5 th early morning and were back on 6 th at night. There we visited many marvelous places and I would like to separate it as given beneath. As it is academic visit, let me start with it. Academic Institutions...
Post a Comment
Read more

"RIP"; Rest in Peace those who are Alive....

Hello Friends, After a long time I am writing here. Hope you all are fine. This time I have come up with a different interpretation of the phrase “RIP”. Mostly this phrase “RIP”; Rest in Peace is used for the people who are no more. We use this phrase to give sympathy towards the departed soul. The soul may get peace wherever it travels. No one exactly knows where the soul travels. Sometimes this phrase is used out of care and sometimes just for show off on social media. While sitting alone near a cemetery, a thought struck in my mind. Why do we use RIP only for dead people????? We can also use it for those who are alive. Many time people use RIP when a person is dead. The same people might have harassed the dead person when he is alive. So what’s the point of “RIP”? Suppose in the day time you behave very badly with someone. Is he/she going to get sound and peaceful sleep at night? The dead person will never come back so we just say “RIP”. Of course ever...
Post a Comment
Read more

" The Winged Word"- David Green

In my Graduation syllabus, I had a book named “ The Winged word”. This anthology is edited by David Green. It is anthology of poems compiled for the students of English literature in the B.A courses of Indian Universities. The chronological order, in which the poets are arranged in this book, helps the students to note the development of English poetry from one age to another. Referring to this book after a long time span, gives me a immense joy. There are many poems in this book. We were given some selected poems to study during three years of graduation. The poems which were in my syllabus are as follow:-    1.)   I Find No Peace – Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42)    2.) My Friend, the Things That Do Attain –Henry Howard (1517- 47)    3.) The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd –Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)    4.) The Nightingale – Sir Philip Sidney (1554- 86)    5.) Since There’s No Help – Michael...
5 comments
Read more