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| MH Abram |
Structuralism proved that meaning evolves out of differences from other signs in a semantic chain. Post structuralists too it to its extreme and claimed that this chain is endless. hence the final meaning is impossible. The process of finding difference is always deferred as well. Derrida coined the portmanteau term Differance. The term suggests to differ' and 'to defer'. Deconstructionists hold that communicating through language is rather impossible. In "The Deconstructive Angel", Abrams defend the ability of traditional historical criticism to discover what literary works might have meant to their contemporaries. They can also grasp what they mean today. To prove this, he compares his own interpretation to those of other interpretations. These combined approximations will "confirm the 'objectivity' of his own interpretation". Abrams admits the ambiguity of literary language, sharing the ideas of Barthes. Abram is comfortable with linguistic theories that see language as pluralistic or ambiguous. But he cannot agree with the violent claims of Deconstruction. To quote him: "deconstruction goes beyond the limits of pluralism, by making impossible anything that we would account as literary and cultural history".
