Deconstructing consumption text: A strategy for reading the (re)constructed consumer

Abstract

This paper argues for the introduction of deconstructive analysis of consumption text, defined as narratives co‐constructed by consumers and researchers. This strategy for reading the (re)constructed consumer is presented by addressing four questions: What is deconstructive analysis? Where does it come from? How does it differ from earlier modernist (New Critical and structural) analysis? What can it contribute to consumer research? The paper briefly summarizes the French origins of deconstruction and argues for its application in consumer research based on the second‐generation applications of American deconstructive critics. It examines the challenge to Western logocentric thought by comparing the ontological, axiological, epistemological, and practical assumptions of deconstruction with those of the New Criticism and structuralism. The paper ends with the implications of deconstruction for discovering problems, gaps, and omissions in consumer research text.

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