Deconstruction’s displacement is always self-differing, never a completed reversal

Evidence

The peculiarity of deconstructive practice must be reiterated here. Displacing the opposition that it initially apparently questions, it is always different from itself, always defers itself. It is neither a constitutive nor, of course, a regulative norm. If it were either, then feminist activity would articulate or strive toward that fulfilled displacement of public (male) and private (female): an ideal society and a sex-transcendent humanity. But deconstruction teaches one to question all transcendental idealisms. It is in terms of this peculiarity of deconstruction, then, that the displacement of male-female, public-private marks a shifting limit rather than the desire for a complete reversal. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 282

Categorization

• XREF: Deconstruction as ‘always different from itself, always defers itself’ is the structural guarantee against strategic essentialism freezing — the move never completes into an ideal end-state. — connects to: Destructive plasticity forms identity through deconstitution, not preservation — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 202; Deconstruction paradoxically requires political resistance to stay silent and unprogrammatic — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 321; Totalizing approaches a boundary it can never actually cross — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 775 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Destructive plasticity forms identity through deconstitution, not preservation #expands (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 202
• Deconstruction paradoxically requires political resistance to stay silent and unprogrammatic #expands (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 321
• Deconstructive narrative moves from doubting one metaphor to doubting language itself #exemplifies (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 534
• Totalizing approaches a boundary it can never actually cross #corroborates (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 775