His deconstruction is often accused of nihilism, because for Derrida, to deconstruct is to be willing to live in the tension of the unresolved, to risk never actually (re)constructing. But in the hands of the marginalized, deconstruction looks a little different. As philosopher and Derrida scholar John D. Caputo, writing about Derrida’s Jewish identity, puts it, “The idea of deconstruction is to deconstruct the workings of strong nation-states with powerful immigration policies, to deconstruct the rhetoric of nationalism, the politics of place, the metaphysics of native land and native
...more
