Maps such as those imposed by the forces of Western imperialism or patriarchy remain active presences on the territory. They cannot simply be wished away in an immediate act of displacement. An initial moment of inversion is required if existing mappings are to be challenged. The dominant map might simply be turned upside-down, our view of the world defamiliarized and its provisional status recognized. The same kind of operation is required to deconstruct the opposition between map and territory. The map, traditionally relegated to a secondary position, has to be foregrounded before we can go on to displace the terms in which the opposition exists. If we cannot immediately escape existing frameworks an opening movement of inversion can begin to undermine their usual operations and exclusions. It is only in this way ‘that deconstruction will provide itself with the means with which to intervene in the field of oppositions that it criticizes, which is also a field of nondiscursive forces.’ 2
Deconstruction cannot limit itself or proceed immediately to a neutralization: it must, by means of a double gesture, a double science, practise an overturning of the classical opposition and a general displacement of the system.
Jacques Derrida 1
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