Deconstruction Reframed

Directed chiefly toward scholars in literary criticism and theory, Peircean semiotics, and, more generally, philosophy, this book is, by the nature of its broad focus, more descriptive than critical, synthetic rather than overtly prescriptive. Beginning with a brief discussion of Peirce and deconstruction, the author then turns to the relevance of current concepts in science and the philosophy of science as well as mathematics―especially Gödel's theorems. Subsequently, a series of "thought experiments" is used to illustrate that some concepts propounded by deconstruction are compatible with certain aspects of the "new physics." The notion of writing is compared to Karl Popper's philosophy of science, and finally, a discussion of Beckett rounds out the author's general thesis.

Floyd Merrell is the author of eight books, including Signs Grow: Semiosis and Life Processes; Sign, Textuality, World; and Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics, and the New Physics, as well as numerous articles on semiotics, literary theory, and Hispanic literature.