Différance and Deconstruction

I've always been interested in learning about the concept of deconstruction, and so I recently read the essay "Différance" by Jacques Derrida. He uses this French word "différance" (he purposely spells it with an A because you can read the A but can't hear it when spoken) to develop his idea of deconstruction.Derrida notes that in the system of language, “there are only differences” (11). He uses the word différance , which he declares is neither a word nor a concept, to acknowledge the play in language and demonstrate that there is no clear origin or beginning from which language develops. He usesdifférance to refer to two distinct meanings: defer and differ. According to the idea of différance in terms of the word "defer," words are signifiers that cannot summon their full meaning, but they develop meaning by their relation to other words. This creates a chain of meaning, which is comparable to the analogy of looking up a word in a dictionary only to find more words that can also be looked up in the dictionary, and the process can carry on infinitely with no apparent starting point of meaning. The "differ" aspect of différance refers to the way that words are defined against one another, and this furthers the idea that complete meaning is always delayed and never indicated through words. However, because différance directly means neither of these, it exemplifies the play that works within language. Derrida develops this concept of deconstruction from his critique of Edmund Husserl’s idea that there exists a pure origin of meaning: “Différance is the non-full, non-simple, structured, and differentiating origin of differences. Thus, the name ‘origin’ no longer suits it” (11). The differences within language which have been produced have no specific subject or thing that causes the differences. Therefore, this idea cannot even be contained in the word différance, because there is no name that exists for the origination of meaning in language. However, the play of the word gives the effect that Derrida wants to use to refer to his ideas about language.

It was interesting to read a primary source to learn more about Derrida's concepts of deconstruction, and I'm interested in reading more about the influences that Derrida's ideas have had on our perspectives of language and literature.