Deconstructionist literary criticism Deconstructionism frees the notion of text from a distinguishable epistemological center. There is no absolute underlying structure to which a text must respond. Language is important, says Jacques Derrida, but don't think for a moment that it is stable; it exists in an infinite “game of meanings” (961). He also describes writing, rather than speech, as the primary foundation of language. What effect does this have on textual meaning? Can it even exist? “The concept of centered structure is…the concept of free play based on a fundamental foundation” (Derrida 960). Deconstructionist criticism attempts to demonstrate that the dynamic "free play" of differences in signs (expressed and unstated) within a text gives rise to meaning without this fundamental foundation. Deconstructionist critics hope to reveal the point at which a text collapses in on itself, the point at which it says something it apparently does not mean to say. Works Cited Derrida, Jaques. "Sign and play of structure in the discourse of the human sciences" The critical tradition. Ed., David H. Richter, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.