The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt [Paperback]

Mark Wigley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262731142 | ISBN-13: 978-0262731140 | Publication Date: August 4, 1995 | Edition: New edition

Nowhere, Mark Wigley asserts, are the stakes higher for deconstruction than in architecture - architecture is the Achilles' heel of deconstructive discourse, the point of vulnerability upon which all of its arguments -depend. In this book Wigley redefines the question of deconstruction and architecture. By locating the architecture already hidden within deconstructive discourse, he opens up more radical possibilities for both architecture and deconstruction, offering a way of rethinking the institution of architecture while using architecture to rethink deconstructive discourse.Wigley relentlessly tracks the tacit argument about architecture embedded within Jacques Derrida's discourse, a curious line of argument that passes through each of the philosopher's texts. He argues that this seemingly tenuous thread actually binds those texts, acting as their source of strength but also their point of greatest weakness. Derrida's work is seen to render architecture at once more complex, uncanny, pervasive, unstable, brutal, enigmatic, and devious, if not insidious, while needing itself to be subjected to an architectural interrogation.Wigley provocatively turns Derrida's reading strategy back on his texts to expose the architectural dimension of their central notions like law, economy, writing, place, domestication, translation, vomit, spacing, laughter, and dance. Along the way he highlights new aspects of the relationship between Heidegger and Derrida, explores the structural role of ornament and the elusive architecture of haunting, while presenting a fascinating account of the institutional politics of architecture.Mark Wigley is Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Princeton University.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The many ever unexpected twists and turns of the dancingdeconstructivist...give the book its meaning. It is the'insistent indirectness' of the argument which is impresive.The current architectural discourse is not so much rejuvenatedby it, as rediscovered in all its magnitude and profundity...the ethical and political engagement of this text is never farto seek. Experiencing this intoxicating dance is a real delight,and that in itself vouches for its merit. This text is warmlyrecommended to architects, philosophers and to everyone else." Geert Bekaert, Archis Magazine

About the Author

Mark Wigley is Professor of Architecture at Columbia University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; New edition edition (August 4, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262731142
• ISBN-13: 978-0262731140
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A ghost dance with a conspiracy theorist, January 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt (Paperback)

Originally written as a PhD thesis in 1986, this book should have been published sooner than it was (1993) because it forewarns just were Jacques Derrida's elusive philosophy was taking us - to a ghost dance, specifically to Derrida's latest ill-fated attempt to prove the ethico-political relevance of his Deconstruction in his book, Specters of Marx, 1993. The Architecture of Deconstruction focuses on Derrida's essays on Husserl (Introduction to the Origin of Geometry) and on Abraham and Torok (Fors) rather than Derrida's essays on architecture (there are enough now to full a book, many concerning Plato's intriguing use of the word Chora, but in '86 there was only one published) in order, writes Wigley, "to think the covert architectural economy of his (Derrida's) work", thus, a poverty of resource is disguised as a guiding principle. Wigley had ample opportunity to correct this before publishing but he chose not to. The core of Wigley's thesis is that there exists an unspoken contract between architecture and philosophy. The former lends itself to the latter as a cluster of metaphors for stability (spatially systematised concepts inside built on solid foundations outside) and in return architectural discourse is granted the authority and respectability of higher learning that only philosophy can give. And like all good conspiracy theories this is a self-fulfilling prophesy: someone will inevitably contradict you, thereby proving the conspiracy is operative by attempting to cover it up. If anything, this book proves that conspiracy theories do indeed work, but when Deconstruction dances, its partner will always be a ghost.

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A ghost dance with a conspiracy theorist, January 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt (Paperback)

Originally written as a PhD thesis in 1986, this book should have been published sooner than it was (1993) because it forewarns just where Jacques Derrida's elusive philosophy was taking us - to a ghost dance, specifically to Derrida's latest ill-fated attempt to prove the ethico-political relevance of his Deconstruction in his book, Specters of Marx, 1993. The Architecture of Deconstruction focuses on Derrida's essays on Husserl (Introduction to the Origin of Geometry) and on Abraham and Torok (Fors) rather than Derrida's essays on architecture (there are enough now to full a book, many concerning Plato's intriguing use of the word Chora, but in '86 there was only one published) in order, writes Wigley, "to think the covert architectural economy of his (Derrida's) work", thus, a poverty of resource is disguised as a guiding principle. Wigley had ample opportunity to correct this before publishing but he chose not to. The core of Wigley's thesis is that there exists an unspoken contract between architecture and philosophy. The former lends itself to the latter as a cluster of metaphors for stability (spatially systematised concepts inside built on solid foundations outside) and in return architectural discourse is granted the authority and respectability of higher learning that only philosophy can give. And like all good conspiracy theories this is a self-fulfilling prophesy: someone will inevitably contradict you, thereby proving the conspiracy is operative by attempting to cover it up. If anything, this book proves that conspiracy theories do indeed work, but when Deconstruction dances, its partner will always be a ghost.