How does deconstruction analyze the opposition between speech and writing?

Deconstruction analyzes the opposition between speech and writing by challenging the traditional Western philosophical hierarchy that privileges speech as a more authentic, immediate form of language than writing.12

In this binary, speech is often viewed as superior because it is assumed to provide immediate access to a speaker's intentions and ideas, whereas writing is seen as a remote, derivative, and secondary representation prone to misunderstanding. Deconstruction, particularly through the work of Jacques Derrida, argues that this hierarchy is a product of logocentrism and the "metaphysics of presence," which falsely assume that meaning can be fully present in the mind of a speaker.12

Derrida demonstrates that speech functions as language only by relying on characteristics traditionally attributed to writing, such as absence and the possibility of being repeated in different contexts. Rather than simply inverting the hierarchy to favor writing, deconstruction seeks to "displace" the opposition entirely, showing that neither term is primary. Both are viewed as forms of a generalized "arche-writing" (archi-écriture), as linguistic meaning is never fully present but is instead endlessly deferred through the play of differences between words, a concept Derrida termed différance.12