Finally, where historical criticism saw texts as fixed expressions of a particular meaning and viewpoint, we understand texts to be inherently unstable, since they contain within themselves the threads of their own unravelling. Language is always slipping. In order to make a point, the narrator must always imply the counterpoint. To construct the narrative world the narrator must suppress something—something that a suspicious reader may choose to dig up. ‘Deconstructive’ criticism seeks to expound