What did Derrida mean when he stated that there is nothing outside of the text?

Answer 1

In order to understand what Derrida means when he speaks of "text", one first has to clarify the way we use "signs" in language (a good example of a sign is a word) in order to communicate. Derrida stresses the paradox in every sign - if you are using the sign to represent something, the sign is obviously not the thing that you are trying to represent, rather something you use in order to defer that thing at the same time as representing it. In addition, Derrida adopts the idea the sign derives its meaning mainly from the difference between itself and other signs (in what is called a structure - this is where we get the term "structuralism"), and not from something that is inherent to it. According to Derrida, we tend to abuse writing, when we see it as a way of representing speech, because as a representor of speech, writing is also inferior to it. The notion that speech is superior to writing, stems from what Derrida calls "logocentrism", i.e. the idea that we are always looking to uncover some kind of transcendant truth, the epitamy of all language. In that kind of system speech really would be superior because it is based on proximity - it is closer to the mind and the self. But if we get rid of the centrality of that "logos", then writing becomes no less important than speach, and even more so, because the lack of a transcendant aspect to reality leaves us with only negative meanings. Anything and everything that we take into account, see, experience or do, is interpreted by us in relation to everything else, and it is all writing, because the meaning of everything we take into account stems only from its not being something else - "THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE OF THE TEXT"

Answer 2

Derrida's statement "there is nothing outside of the text" asserts that all meaning is constructed through language and signs, and that there is no universal, objective truth that exists independently of interpretation. He argues that texts are interconnected and referential, constantly deferring meaning to other texts, thus revealing the endless nature of interpretation and the impossibility of reaching a definitive truth outside of language.