Derrida, Jacques(1930- )

French philosopher and leader of the deconstructionist movement. From the work of Husserl and Heidegger, Derrida derives the view that meaning emerges only provisionally, from an endless process of re-interpretation based on the interaction between reader and text. In "La Voix et le phénoméne" (Speech and Phenomena) (1967), "L'écriture et la différance" (Writing and Difference) (1967), "De la Grammatologie" (Of Grammatology ) (1967), and "La Dissémination" (Dissemination) (1972), Derrida argues that all dichotomies between subject and object or appearance and reality are ultimately untenable.