Abstract

Subject used to be a stable concept referring to the actant of an event and it was the opposite of object. Emancipated from being the innate sinners of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance subject is intelligent and powerful and the Renaissance literature is loaded with compliments of human magnificence. Heidegger’s Dasein underscores the passivity of the subject as it is inadvertently thrown into this world. Sartre highlights the freedom of the subject and the choices made by the subject are the meanings of its existence. Derrida deconstructs the sematic meaning of the subject since the incessant chain of signification puts it in constant flux. The existential subject is deterritorialized by the postmodern thoughts and rendered fragmentary, frivolous and amoral.

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