Deconstructivism reacted against populist postmodernism by fusing literary theory with avant-garde architecture.

Evidence

The strongest line of argument now comes from what is called ‘deconstructivism.’ In part of a reaction against the way that much of the postmodern movement had entered into the mainstream and generated a popular­ ized architecture that is lush and indulgent, deconstructivism seeks to regain the high ground of elite and avant-garde architectural practice by active deconstruction of the modernism of the Russian constructivists of the 1930s. The movement in part acquires its in­ terest because of its deliberate attempt to fuse the deconstructionist thinking from literary theory with postmodernist architectural prac­ tices that often seem to have developed according to a logic all their own. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 592

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘deconstructivism’ means as an architectural school distinct from broader postmodernism.
• XREF: connects to: Postmodernism’s high-low cultural fusion is populist, unlike avant-garde transgression. — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 166