Derrida said the center is not the center.

Saussure, Derrida, Elaine Showalter and the sign, signfier, and signified.

Who is at the center and what is the center? Derrida examines in his essay on Deconstruction. Saussure’s Theory of sign was a landmark concept in the theory of linguistics. Even though, dealing with Linguistics but, the sign was later appropriated by the deconstructionists for theorizing on the ‘Nature of meaning’.

Poststructuralists and Deconstructionalists used the Saussurian concept of the language of sign to make sense of language philosophy and the nature of meaning. Everything, socially, linguistically, culturally, has meaning only in the relation to the signifier. Therefore, to understand this we need to understand Saussure.

According to Saussure-

1.The sign is divided into signifier and signified.

2.The relationship between the sign and signifier is arbitrary and is based on how the two are related because of no inherent meaning.

3.Signified and the sign is related by chance, usage, and tradition.

The nature of meaning is known to us by the nature of the signified and signifier and the traditional circulation in the social structure.

Human life is lived by and lived in linguistic meaning. If we define human life we define the act of knowledge. It is based on continuous usage and tradition.

For example, ‘She goes to the market every day to get milk’

1. This sentence has a structure
2. all words are arranged in a system, in a structure.
3. Hence, the sentence has a meaning only if it is arranged in a structure.

Structuralism pleads that meanings are directed by structures but who creates this structure? It is created by some knowledge structure already working on language and that is why Derrida in sign and structure mentions that ‘The structurality of the structure is not questioned’. For example when we say ‘a is s’ and if you start challenging the ‘s’ then we can deconstruct the sentence, but the challenges for the meanings are closed and the belief is created as it to be the truth. So the ‘s’ or structure working without questions according to Derrida is the center or the transcendental signified. The meaning is unchallenged so far because no one is questioning that where did they originate and that is why they were working in the system very well.

Let’s look at the gender issues. Elaine Showalter said One is not a born woman but becomes one. She believes that there are specific attributes to the female body. Our understanding of oppression and marginalization stems from the knowledge and periscope of patriarchy. The man versus woman issue is playing out according to the patriarchal knowledge systems. The discourse suits the patriarchal or the foundation systems. That is to say, there is more oppression and worry in the life of women than what is told to us from the point of view of patriarchy. Standing up to this fact will blaze questions of authenticity and there will be severe difficulty in legitimizing it. Anyone who does not fall in line with the dominant ideological knowledge will have to face the problem of authenticity and legitimacy because these dominant ideological knowledge systems have the power to legitimize and delegitimize the ‘new meanings’ that come to existence. So, If I dare say that I don’t believe in Literature I will be in fear not only outside but also inside, the real sense of rejection will scare me. Similarly, if I say that I don’t believe in God, I will fear the backlash from the dominant ideological systems.

Here, the center is working. The transcendental signified is working to keep the knowledge system coherent and unified and powerful. All the God believers in one room never letting the disbelievers in is fatal to the structure as well. This transcendental signified interacts with our lives every day at every step. The unquestionable structure of the meanings changes the meanings.