On Deconstructionalism: A Logocentric Case Study on Tom Stoppard’s Selected Plays: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia

The purpose of this study is to examine a deconstructive concept of theatre as it specifically relates to thetheatre of post-structuralism by investigating the works and ideas of Tom Stoppard. Accusing Western philosophy ofbeing obsessed with binary oppositions, Jacques Derrida s deconstructive approach represents language as an instableand delogocentric system by means of which no fixed meaning can be created. Together with conceptualism andrejection of modern doctrines, Derrida s theory of post-structuralism is utilized to analyze the inner dynamics ofStoppard s two selected plays: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia.

Keywords:

Post-structuralism , Postmodernism , Deconstruction , Binary oppositions , Différance , Dissemination , Delogocentrism