ABSTRACT
The hierarchical relationship between theory and practice is indicated by theory’s definition as ‘a systematic statement of rules or principles to be followed’. The relation between theory and practice has been giving the discipline of literary studies very real practical problems, which have been most pressing in the classroom at first degree level. The transformation of metaphysical deconstruction into a literary-critical practice in the English academy has been faced with a double resistance. Deconstruction itself explicitly resists the concept of such transformation and the discipline of English has a long-standing and well-documented prejudice against ‘abstract’ thought generally and French theory in particular. The notion that deconstruction is a method of literary criticism is also predictably inimical to Jacques Derrida. Although radical indeterminacy represents an exaggeration of New Critical ambiguity, the view of the literary text as an organic unity cannot be reconciled with poststructuralist theories of textuality.
