Why do deconstructive readings treat literary works as connected to other texts and discourses?

Deconstructive readings treat literary works as connected to other texts and discourses because they reject the idea of the work as a self-contained, harmonious artifact. Instead, these readings view a text as a product of complex relations with both literary and nonliterary discourses.1

This approach is rooted in the understanding that linguistic meaning is not fixed or inherent but is instead created through the play of differences between words. Because the meaning of any word depends on its contrast with other words in an infinite, deferred chain, no text can exist in isolation. By examining these intertextual connections, deconstruction reveals the intractable conflicts and contradictions within a work, demonstrating that its meaning is inextricably bound to the broader systems of language and culture that structure human experience. Consequently, deconstructive analysis highlights how a work implicitly critiques the very categories used to analyze it, rather than functioning as a closed, objective construction.231