“Investigating Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina Under the Lens of Derrida’sDeconstruction”

Anna Karenina is Leo Tolstoy’s realistic novel, focusing on prevailing issues in nineteenthcenturyRussia. For years, his book has been a perfect research source for feminism becauseof its subject matter. However, what makes this work to be a controversial book is its powerof deconstruction. Accordingly, this study aims to examine Anna Karenina through the lensof Derridean “deconstruction.” “Deconstructive reading” is the structural investigation of atext to find where it loses its coherence. For its purpose, the study uses three concepts ofdeconstruction to depict Anna Karenina’s incoherence. They are “signifier and signified,”“decenterism,” and “binary opposition.” Tolstoy desires to present Anna and her miserablelife as a moral lesson for other women in society, but she becomes the actual hero of the novel.Hence, through the lens of deconstruction, the researcher will prove that text is made oflanguage and that language is ultimately unstable. It can destroy a text’s unity, question itsmeaning, and change its arguments.