History GenreDeconstruction / Literature

* ''Literature/TheFireUsTrilogy;; deconstructs the TeenageWasteland story, specifically the kind where all the adults are killed and the children are left to carry on. Children may be immune to the virus that killed the adults, but the vast majority of them simply don't have the ability to take care of themselves. As a result, the absence of adults leads to a second wave of deaths from things like starvation, accidents, and disease, to the point where humanity is an endangered species within five years of the plague. The main characters have been living in a deserted town for so long that they've forgotten what their lives were like before the event and are convinced that they're the last people on Earth until an outsider enters their town.

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': During Victorian times it was common to idealize "self-made men" (capitalists) in the context of Social Darwinism. Dickens gave the world Ebenezer Scrooge, a "self-made man" who got where he was through a combination of ruthlessness and greed, and whose wealth comes at the expense of his friends, family, and ultimately his own happiness, and is thus bitter, miserable, and on the verge of dying alone and unmissed. However, the book also [[DeconReconSwitch turns around and delves into]] a {{Reconstruction}} by having the three spirits teach him the error of his ways, and thus he reforms and embraces what truly matters. Of course, all this was unheard of at the time, which is why it's regarded as such a classic. Unfortunately, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny its impact has been blunted by overexposure]].

* ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities''. To many, the famous opening line ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...") seems [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny cliche]], but one needs to look at it in the context of UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. In the years following it, revisionists on both sides relied heavily on propaganda, romanticising their own side as undeniably good, and demonising the other side as undeniably bad. ''A Tale of Two Cities'' makes the assumption that both sides were absolutely right and runs with it, and so both the aristocrats and the revolutionaries have, among their ranks, noble, honorable people fighting for what they believe is right, and total sadists who just want some bloodshed.

* The ''Literature/WildCards'' series takes the tropes and archetypes of super-hero fiction and places them in a realistic world, where super-powered individuals must deal with real-world physics, human law and politics, and often the absence of the RequiredSecondaryPowers that keep them from being dangers to themselves and others. Telepaths go mad or lose their sense of self. Shapeshifters can't alter their overall body mass and so their abilities are limited. Heroes with elemental powers aren't immune to their own abilities and often accidentally injure or kill themselves. Corporate sponsorship is a big deal in this world, and more often than not heroes are more interested in fame and fortune than fighting crime or making the world a better place. Superpowered individuals are also subject to government registration and regulation where they're not outright enslaved and made into living weapons...which in turn makes global politics far more unstable.

* The ''Literature/WildCards'' series takes the tropes and archetypes of super-hero fiction and places them in a realistic world, where super-powered individuals must deal with real-world physics, human law and politics, and often the absence of the RequiredSecondaryPowers that keep them from being dangers to themselves and others. Telepaths go mad or lose their sense of self. Shapeshifters can't alter their overall body mass and so their abilities are limited. Heroes with elemental powers aren't immune to their own abilities and often accidentally injure or kill themselves. Corporate sponsorship is a big deal in this world, and more often than not heroes are more interested in fame and fortune than fighting crime or making the world a better place. Superheroes are also subject to government registration and regulation where they're not outright enslaved and made into living weapons...which in turn makes global politics far more unstable.

* The ''Literature/WildCards'' series takes the tropes and archetypes of super-hero fiction and places them in a realistic world, where super-powered individuals must deal with real-world physics, human law and politics, and often the absence of the RequiredSecondaryPowers that keep them from being dangers to themselves and others. Telepaths go mad or lose their sense of self. Shapeshifters can't alter their overall body mass and so their abilities are limited. Heroes with elemental powers aren't immune to their own abilities and often accidentally injure or kill themselves. More often then not people become superheroes for the fame and fortune, not out of any altruistic desire to fight crime or make the world a better place. Superheroes are subject to government registration and regulation where they're not outright enslaved and made into living weapons...which in turn makes global politics far more unstable.

* The ''Literature/WildCards'' series takes the tropes and archetypes of super-hero fiction and places them in a realistic world, where super-powered individuals must deal with real-world physics, human law and politics, and often the absence of the RequiredSecondaryPowers that keep them from being dangers to themselves and others. Telepaths go mad or lose their sense of self. Shapeshifters can't alter their overall body mass and so their abilities are limited. Heroes with elemental powers aren't immune to their own abilities and often accidentally injure or kill themselves. More often then not people become superheroes for the fame and fortune, not out of any altruistic desire to fight crime or make the world a better. Superheroes are subject to government registration and regulation where they're not outright enslaved and made into living weapons...which in turn makes global politics far more unstable.

* ''Literature/TheMasterKey'': A deconstruction of the Edisonade, a genre that was popular in the early 1900s but is now [[ForgottenTrope all but forgotten]]. A typical Edisonade featured a [[TeenGenius young]], [[{{Eagleland}} red-blooded American]] [[AlwaysMale lad]] who, through [[GadgeteerGenius his own inborn ingenuity]], creates an invention that would revolutionize the world, promptly uses it to go on a globe-spanning adventure, where he triumphs over [[TheNativesAreRestless savage indigenous tribes]] and [[YellowPeril insidious Orientals]], and returns home with oodles of treasure. In this book, however, while [[ValuesDissonance the racism is unfortunately still present]], the hero stumbles upon the [[TitleDrop master key]] by pure luck, does not understand what he has done, and is given all of his gadgets by the [[BenevolentGenie Demon of Electricity]]. Being a typical teenage boy who [[KnowNothingKnowItAll thinks he knows everything about the world despite never having left his home town]], Rob gets into trouble as soon as he starts his adventure, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero frequently leaves his destinations worse than when he arrived]], gets [[spoiler:captured by bandits through his own stupidity]], [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter blindly does whatever strangers tell him to do]] even though it usually screws him over, takes advantage of his benefactor and his family, and ''never'' learns from his mistakes until [[spoiler:the end, where he, now convinced that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, turns down the Demon's final gifts, gives him a huge [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "fuck you"]], and demands that he depart forever, because TheWorldIsNotReady]]. Though it is implied that he did the right thing in the end, it's still a little bit ambiguous.

* ''Literature/MadameBovary'' is a fierce deconstruction of contemporary romance novels. The titular character reads romance novels all the time, and [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel comes to expect to live her own life that way]], except her attitudes and behaviors destroy her life. She's a StepfordSmiler who constantly buys things to try and alleviate her own loneliness (it doesn't work), leaves her husband for another man who she expects will sweep her off her feet (he doesn't), and when she finally commits suicide, she expects arsenic to be a PerfectPoison that lets her die romantically (she spends several days in agonizing pain before she croaks). The novel ended up paving the way towards Realism.
* ''Literature/InterviewWithTheVampire'' deconstructs the perceived glamour of the vampire mythos by showing the crushing tedium of living an unending existence and the idea that all vampires are killers. Louis must have taken centuries to fully embrace his killing nature. Maybe have been somewhat of an UnbuiltTrope, since Interview is a TropeCodifier for romantic vampires in the first place.
* ''Galaxies'' by Barry N. Malzberg is written both in praise and condemnation of the possibilities and limits of science-fiction. In fact, the book presents itself at the opening as a set of notes for a novel that can't be written because of those limits. Throughout, the narrator talks about how background can be integrated, scenes set, and how the right ending is among the most important elements while at the same time, paradoxically enough, actually "telling" the story.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is generally seen as being a deconstruction on romanticized, medievalesque societies in fantasy. Martin himself made a comment along the lines of "If a real-life stable-boy talked back to the Princess, he was likely to lose a tongue in the process." He's also fond of developing characters that fit many of the fantasy archetypes, then showing how difficult it would really be for them under more realistic circumstances. Eddard Stark is a premier example of the "noble lord" type of character, being honorable, just, and sympathetic, a good father and skilled leader in battle, but his positive qualities spell disaster for himself and his family and later, the entire kingdom of the North. He also deconstructs the typical EvilOverlord, such as the Lannisters and Boltons, on how being excessively cruel is counter productive, and that they would not last long for being StupidEvil. Being the most hated houses in the realms means everyone is aiming for their heads, which includes the allies they need to survive. For a more thorough list of examples, see [[DeconstructedTrope/ASongOfIceAndFire here]] and [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/ASongOfIceAndFire here]].

* ''Literature/TheFirstLaw Trilogy'' by Joe Abercrombie deconstructs heroic fantasy and a few of its common character archetypes, such as the "Wise Old Mentor", the Arthurian Aragorn-like figure, and the quest to save the world. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the "Wise Old Mentor", is a ruthless, egomaniacal asshole, the Arthurian figure is an arrogant prick who grows a sense of compassion and nobility only to be put in his place. The "Epic Conflict" is nothing more than a feud between Bayaz and his rival from when they were apprentice wizards that has gone on for centuries.]] According to the [[http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/27121-last-argument-of-kings-spoiler-thread/page__view__findpost__p__1286030 author]], Logen Ninefingers is supposed to be a deconstruction of violent characters with {{Dark And Troubled Past}}s, as well as the glamorization of killing, the idea that people would [[DracoInLeatherPants overlook]] a killer's unsavoriness just because they [[PetTheDog showed a soft side]], and the idea that a man can be vicious killer and still be a good person.
** Glokta is a deconstruction of the PunchClockVillain or JustFollowingOrders; the series goes into in-depth exploration of how messed up you would have to be to keep "working" as a villain. He constantly questions himself and his superiors (in fact his CatchPhrase is "Why do I do this?") but also doesn't think he's capable of doing anything ''else'' because of what his own torture and his work for the Inquisition turned him into.
* Throughout ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' Mark Twain mocks Romanticism, an English writing style that was still popular in the U.S., even though its popularity had faded in England by then. Adventure books were a popular subject for Romanticism, for which Tom Sawyer was often used to parody. Twain mainly deconstructs Romanticism as a means to Reconstruct into Realism, which had developed in the U.S. during the mid nineteenth century.
** One example is during the long-winded ending, when Huck and Tom [[spoiler:are trying to rescue Jim]], and Tom insists on following a bunch of pointless activities from various Romantic stories, such as making [[spoiler:Jim]] write on a coat of arms and water a plant with his tears, and putting rats where [[spoiler:Jim is held]] for [[spoiler:Jim]] to play music for, all of which serves only to make a simple task much more difficult. Tom's attempts to make their task more exciting, like in a Romantic book, goes awry, as Tom is shot as [[spoiler:Huck, Tom, and Jim escape, and they are all caught, anyway. (Of course, the fact that Tom knew this whole time that Jim was already legally free served to make his whole act even more pointless).]]
** Another example involving Tom is when he mistakes a Sunday school picnic for Arab and Spaniard armies, which leads to the picnic being ruined. Both this and the previous example seem to show how Romantic books affected its young readers, by making them act irrationally and cause problems.

* ''Literature/{{Superpowers}}'' by David J. Schwartz completely tears up the super-hero genre. There are no super-villains or over-arching plots to destroy the world, but it's okay, because by the end of the book, the group has [[spoiler: been inadvertently responsible for several woundings and deaths]], Charlie, the group's mind reader [[spoiler: goes partially insane from all the dread immediately after 9/11, goes into a mental asylum for a year, and is presumably kidnapped by the government immediately after]], Jack, the group's speedster [[spoiler: dies from old age as a result of accelerated aging related to his super speed]], Mary Beth, who has super strength [[spoiler: accidentally kills an innocent Islamic man, and willingly goes to jail for it]], Caroline, the group's flier [[spoiler: experiences her mother dying in 9/11]] and [[spoiler: goes into exile with Harriet (the team's invisible woman) and her father.]]
* The novel ''Literature/DonQuixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes deconstructs the ChivalricRomance by showing how much trouble the chivalric code can cause in the real world, and the dark, unspoken assumptions behind knight's tales (i.e, true gentlemen do not need to work). [[DeconstructorFleet Also a deconstruction of many other genres]], like the RomanceNovel (MayDecemberRomance, FilleFatale), {{Arcadia}}, SecretTestOfCharacter, SweetPollyOliver, GentlemanThief, DeadpanSnarker (SarcasticDevotee and ServileSnarker). It also has {{Unbuilt Trope}}s like StrawFan, LordErrorProne, MadDreamer, CutLexLuthorACheck and BookBurning… and given its status as the first modern novel, it’s full of {{Postmodernism}}.
** A huge amount of ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is also a reconstruction of the ChivalricRomance (bear in mind that the Don quotes whole excerpts from ''Amadis of Gaul'' and ''Orlando Furioso'' in places), after the genre was already old-fashioned, and half of the joke is a TakeThat against the contemporary MoralGuardians who believed that such tales were inappropriate and corrupting for proper young ladies... which is why the book is about how chivalric romances lead to the corruption of a fifty-year-old man. ''After'' everyone else had stopped caring. ''Literature/DonQuixote'' proceeded to spur a revival of the genre (part 2 was partially Cervantes' rebuttal to an insulting FanFic) and became a tragic romantic figure for the remainder of Western history.
** ''Orlando Furioso'' was, itself, a deconstruction of the KnightInShiningArmour's obsessive love for his lady. After Orlando finds out that Angelica has no interest in him and doesn't hold up to his impossibly high standards (i.e., she has premarital sex with and eventually gets married to a likable Arab guy), he basically [[LoveMakesYouEvil turns into]] ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk and runs around killing innocent people.
* Creator/CharlesDickens:
** The novel ''Literature/GreatExpectations'' is a rare case of a writer deconstructing all of his previous work. All the normal tropes of Dickens novels (the ChangelingFantasy, saintly dying women, mysterious benefactors, long-lost relatives, etc.) happen like clockwork. Then these tropes are revealed to be a malevolent lie created to manipulate the hero - who has been so morally ruined that he's more like an {{Antihero}}.
** ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''. During Victorian times it was common to idealize "self-made men" (capitalists) in the context of Social Darwinism. Dickens gave the world Ebenezer Scrooge, a "self-made man" who got where he was through a combination of ruthlessness and greed, and whose wealth comes at the expense of his friends, family, and ultimately his own happiness, and is thus bitter, miserable, and on the verge of dying alone and unmissed. However, the book also [[DeconReconSwitch turns around and delves into]] a {{Reconstruction}} by having the three spirits teach him the error of his ways, and thus he reforms and embraces what truly matters. Of course, all this was unheard of at the time, which is why it's regarded as such a classic. Unfortunately, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny its impact has been blunted by overexposure]].
* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'' is a Superhero novel, revolving around Doctor Impossible breaking out of jail to try and take over the world (again)... all the while wondering if he's done the [[CutLexLuthorACheck smartest things he could do with his life and vast intellect]]. Most of the other characters are {{Captain Ersatz}}es of other popular comic book archetype characters, with realistic human flaws added.
** Interestingly, the deconstruction for the most part comes only through the narration of the main characters, and the things that would happen off screen in comic books. When the characters actually speak, they still seem to speak in a classic way, spewing puns and unnecessarily narrating what they are doing out loud to basically no-one.
** They also show that many supers have health problems because, fundamentally, humans weren't meant to be able to do the things they can do. Fatale had to have years of extensive surgery and therapy in oder to become a Cyborg, Damsel is constantly throwing up because she's an artificially created HalfHumanHybrid, and Rainbow Triumph has to intake a steady stream of medication to keep her body from rejecting her modifications and killing her.

* ''Banewreaker'' by Creator/JacquelineCarey and its sequel ''Godslayer'' deconstruct HeroicFantasy in the most painful manner possible. It's hard to think of a fantasy trope not used, up to and including a more benign version of IHaveYouNowMyPretty, but AlwaysChaoticEvil is subverted, SympatheticPOV is averted, and the {{Designated Villain}}s are made to be [[DarkIsNotEvil ultimately on the side of what's right]] ''despite [[IDidWhatIHadtoDo committing horrible deeds out of necessity]]''. It's enough to make your jaw drop, almost qualifying as {{Detournement}}.
* ''A Princess Worth Dying For'' by Sergei Lukyanenko presents a fairly standard SpaceOpera world with a few innovative technologies thrown in. The sequel, ''Planet that Doesn't Exist" proceeds to deconstruct the entire setting, revealing that [[spoiler:it was actually a result of a GambitRoulette orchestrated by time-traveling humans from the future, who wanted to create thousands of planets worth of allies in a fight against an alien race that kept humanity from expanding out into space.]]
* ''Out of this World'' by Creator/LawrenceWattEvans deconstructs both HighFantasy and SpaceOpera. Our hero is an [[ThisLoserIsYou ordinary schlub]], so everything - ''everything'' - he tries [[FailureHero fails miserably]] as the narration remarks that such things [[ThisIsReality only work in fiction]]. DeusAngstMachina rears its ugly head when [[spoiler:the villains rape and murder his wife and daughter]].

* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' is a deconstruction of the {{Cyberpunk}} genre. Stephenson exaggerates the genre's usual tropes and takes them to their logical conclusion - most notably Hiro Protagonist's outlandish array of skills and the fact that the Metaverse looks more like Second Life than any serious cyberpunk VR. The critiques inherent in ''Snow Crash'' flew over the heads of a lot of readers, but they informed many later works in the genre including Gibson's ''Literature/BridgeTrilogy''.
* At around the same time as ''Literature/SnowCrash'' was written, two of CyberPunk's early proponents, Creator/WilliamGibson (author of, among others, the [[UnbuiltTrope prototypical]] CyberPunk book ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}})'' and Bruce Sterling (author of the CyberPunk anthology ''Mirrorshades''), got together to write ''Literature/TheDifferenceEngine'', which was meant to deconstruct CyberPunk by taking all the CyberPunk storylines and themes and putting them in a Victorian Context, the point being that the themes commonly associated with CyberPunk were [[OlderThanTheyThink nothing new]], or even anything entirely ''fictional''. Instead they ended up giving birth to [[SteamPunk a new genre]].
** As such, ''Literature/TheDifferenceEngine'' doubles as a pretty effective deconstruction of the SteamPunk genre [[UnbuiltTrope it helped popularize]]. Many of the flaws of Victorian society — socio-economic tensions; poor understanding of medicine; police surveillance; pollution; British imperialism — are exacerbated by England getting its hands on advanced technology way too early to be trusted with it.
*** ''Literature/TheDiamondAge'' was another novel to start critiquing SteamPunk [[UnbuiltTrope early on]]. All the archetypical steampunk technology is there, but Neal Stephenson doesn't waste a single opportunity to highlight the shortcomings and ValuesDissonance of (neo-)Victorian society: Hackworth is a genius but socially bound to remain working-class; his wife [[spoiler:divorces him per Victorian custom after he joins the Drummers and gets buggered repeatedly while high in their ceremonies]]; Nell is alienated by the rigidness and impracticality of her boarding school, and so on.
** Creator/WilliamGibson [[WordOfGod himself said]] in the introduction to ''The Difference Engine'' that the idea came from when he finally got around to actually buying a computer for himself. Before then he thought computers were these mysterious magic boxes. When got it, he called into tech support that it was making "funny noises", only to be told it was just the disk drive. He went on to say how shocked he was that this "little box [was] actually run by such a primitive Victorian technology as a motor spinning a disk".
* Bret Easton Ellis's novel ''Literature/TheRulesOfAttraction'' could arguably be described as a deconstruction of WackyFratboyHijinx-style books and films, using the female character Lauren to show the casual sexism and objectification of women commonplace in the genre, the character of Paul to similarly show how homosexuality is so feared by the genre's archetypal characters, the results of massive consumption of alcohol and drugs, the indifference of most of the characters to the feelings of others, and the ennui and boredom which leads to the inevitable WildTeenParty.
* Balzac's ''Illusions Perdues'' is a particularly depressing deconstruction of the ''[[ComingOfAgeStory Bildungsroman]]''.
* ''Incognita'' is a deconstruction of the courtly romances of the early 18th century, as it exposes just how shallow and stupid all the characters would have to be and how reliant the plot is on ContrivedCoincidence.
* ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' deconstructs the DownTheRabbitHole genre (subgenre of MagicalLand) by showing '''just how dangerous''' a trip to a MagicalLand can be, but most important by noting that whatever summoned you there is as likely to be bad as to be good. Also, the '''whole''' MagicalLand may be an [[TownWithADarkSecret evil trap]], as opposed to standard setting where evil is just a part which you should vanquish in order to either return home or live HappilyEverAfter in said land. Also deconstructs the ChangelingFantasy trope by showing that such claims may be dangerous lies.

* ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'' books deconstruct RolePlayingGames featuring PlayerCharacters in a larger world (including TabletopGames and {{MMORPG}}s). Pays particular attention to the relentlessly influential (and often devastating) effects such characters tend to have on the world they're visiting. The trappings of a HighFantasy are there, but it's one hell of a CrapsackWorld.
* Sleeping Helena is a deconstruction of Sleeping Beauty. She is granted the gifts of music and dance and grace and beauty and so on and so forth, but these instead turn into obligations rather than gifts, each gift requiring her attention a bit each day. She also becomes a monster, torturing animals and willing to hurt and manipulate other people. "Why did no one think to grant her kindness?"
** [[spoiler: In addition, the curse of death was deconstructed as well, since the gift was not actually intended to kill her.]]
* Done with the trip-to-fairyland thing in Creator/CatherynneMValente's book ''[[Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]''. To be specific, she deconstructs what happens to the Pevensie children. In the Narnia books, the Pevensies go to a wonderful, amazing magical land, grow up, presumably have romantic interests, and are kings and queens. When they return to their own world and are basically reset to the ages they were when they discovered Narnia, they are ''totally fine with it'' and show no signs of angst or even anger. Not so with the [[spoiler:Marquess, the villain of the piece. Near the end it is revealed she is also from September's world, only she Stumbled instead of being Ravished and so was doomed to return to her own world exactly like the Pevensies. She didn't know this, so she grew up, became Queen, had a husband and a leopard - and then, without warning, found herself a child again, back on a boring tomato farm. She was ''pissed'', needless to say, and finagled herself a return to Fairyland, where she proceeds to take revenge on the whole damn ''world'' by becoming a terrifying tyrant.]]
* ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles'' by Bernard Cornwell arguably does this in regards to Myth/ArthurianLegend. First, it rips the tales from TheHighMiddleAges style that people often imagine, then drops it in DarkAgeEurope, which is when Arthur was supposed to have lived after all. Castles are just wooden buildings which decay after a few years, because the only stonework is what was left behind after the fall of Rome, and no one in Dark Ages Britain knows how to repair it anymore. There are no knights in shining armor (in fact only the very rich can afford armor at all), [[WeAreStrugglingTogether there is constant plotting and in-fighting among Britain's factions]], the Round Table only appears in one scene and all the warlords involved treat it as a joke, all magic (including Merlin's) is either faked, lucky, or MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, the most prominent churchman is a weaselly, ambitious JerkAss who will happily undermine any secular rule to get Christians favored more, (and increase his own status by doing so) Lancelot is a privileged MamasBoy coward who pays the bards to write stories about him, and Guinevere is (initially) an overcompensating and ambitious AlphaBitch trying to corrupt Arthur into becoming RegentForLife. (Which, admittedly, would have solved a lot of problems that Britain experiences in the third book of the trilogy.)
* Arguably, Boris Strugatsky's ''The Powerless Ones of This World'' is a deconstruction of much of his own and his late brother's earlier works. Perhaps most prominently, "the Sensei", who is a [[TheMentor wise old mentor]] (a fairly typical character for many Strugatsky novels), turns out to have been not only a TricksterMentor, but also [[spoiler:the initiator of ThePlan that dictated much of the plot and was aimed at [[DieOrFly forcing the main character to unlock his full abilities]]]]. It succeeded, but not before making said main character a nervous wreck, inducing quite a BitterSweetEnding and causing much remorse to the mentor himself. Additionally, the topic of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressor the Progressors]] is briefly brought up; one of the characters muses that the Sensei might be acting as one on Earth, and that he had, despite some occasional successes, failed miserably.
** ''Hard to Play God'' deconstructs medieval chivalry, fantasy settings, the supposed glamour of royalty and nobility, and well-intentioned meddling by developed countries (in this case, civilizations: an idealist Commies InSpace benevolent space-faring nation ideologically similar to ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s Federation). The Middle Ages are also known as the Dark Ages for a reason: a CrapsackWorld is pretty much a given there.
* With ''Literature/ACompanionToWolves'', Creator/ElizabethBear and Creator/SarahMonette do this to all [[BondCreatures bonded companion animal]] stories, especially Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern''.
* A lot of John Tynes and/or Greg Stolze works features this. ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'', for instance, deconstructs the UrbanFantasy setting, the novel ''AHungerLikeFire'' deconstructs the trope of the sensual vampire temptress and the [=RPGs=] ''Godlike'' and ''Wild Talents'' deconstructs superheroes stories set during World War 2 and the Cold War respectively.
* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse''
** The novel ''The Crooked World'' by SteveLyons is a deconstruction of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-esque cartoons as the Doctor lands in a cartoon world and begins to influence its inhabitants' behaviors towards naturalism.
** ''The Indestructable Man'' by Simon Messingham is a deconstruction of all Creator/GerryAnderson's work, asking ''why'' Jeff Tracy founded the Series/{{Thunderbirds}}, what SHADO personnel would ''really'' be like -- yes, ''Series/UFO1970'' was DarkerAndEdgier to being with, but Messingham takes it further -- and how the ordinary people of the Supermarionation world might feel about so much money being channeled into AwesomeButImpractical vehicles. Most notably, the title Indestructable Man is a CaptainErsatz Series/{{Captain Scarlet|AndTheMysterons}} who feels [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul detached from humanity]] and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever wishes he was able to die]].
* [[http://www.nicolagriffith.com/troll.html "A Troll Story"]] by Nicola Griffith, in which a Viking warrior faces off against a troll. He wins, all right, but the story abruptly takes a deconstructionist turn: he [[spoiler:[[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes insane]] from the troll's final curse, which renders him able to understand that [[NotSoDifferentRemark there's no essential moral difference]] between the troll's slaughter of Vikings and his own slaughter of innocents in the towns he's raided.]]
* ''Ring For Jeeves'' could be considered Creator/PGWodehouse's deconstruction of his own stories. The usual romantic comedy character-relation tropes are there, but the world they live in is remarkably different. All of Wodehouse's stories take place in a world of eternal GenteelInterbellumSetting, but ''Ring For Jeeves'' explores what would happen if time actually ''progressed''. World War II has happened, Britain is in the throes of social upheaval which separates Jeeves and Bertie (Bertie is sent to a school that teaches the aristocracy how to fend for themselves), poverty and suicide and graphic death are acknowledged, and Jeeves even admits to having "dabbled in" World War I. The book's setting, Rowchester Abbey, is falling apart at the seams and the characters who inhabit it start to feel like a pocket of old-fashioned happiness in a darkening world. In case any doubters still exist about 3/4 through the book, there's Constable Wyvyrn's musings ''about just how much the world has changed.''
* ''Goshawk Squadron'' by Derek Robinson attacks the popular view of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI air combat which, rather than dueling "Knights of the Air", actually involved undertrained pilots diving out of the sun and machine-gunning their opponent in the back before he had a chance to defend himself.
* ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' was a deconstruction of Myth/ArthurianLegend, which a lot of Brits took offense to. (It was compared, at one point, to defecating on a national treasure.)
* ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald could be the earliest deconstruction of the American dream lifestyle. It shows the rich and happy as people who are [[StepfordSmiler empty on the inside]] and the fight between new rich and old rich lifestyles, particularly with the titular character Jay Gatsby.
* The ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'' series by R. Scott Bakker was an attempted deconstruction of what Bakker considers the crux of fantasy - a ''meaningful'' universe with metaphysical purpose. One of the premises of the series is "What if you had a fantasy world where Old Testament-style morality, with all of its arbitrary taboos and cruelties (like damnation), was as true in the same way that gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared?". Whether he successfully accomplishes this is heavily debated.
* ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities''. To many, the famous opening line ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...") seems [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny cliche]], but one needs to look at it in the context of UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. In the years following it, revisionists on both sides relied heavily on propaganda, romanticising their own side as undeniably good, and demonising the other side as undeniably bad. ''A Tale of Two Cities'' makes the assumption that both sides were absolutely right and runs with it, and so both the aristocrats and the revolutionaries have, among their ranks, noble, honorable people fighting for what they believe is right, and total sadists who just want some bloodshed.
* Literature/WhenYouReachMe provides an interesting deconstruction of the TimeTravel ideas, mostly from being told not as a person who is doing the time traveling. The time traveler himself is seen as generally crazy to everyone, and the only way he can have someone believe he's from the future is by sending notes carried in his mouth, because he can't bring anything to the past.

* ''The Marriage Plot'' by Creator/JeffreyEugenides is a deconstruction of... well, ''the marriage plot'' (i.e. a RomanceNovel that culminates in [[HappilyEverAfter marriage]]). The novel [[DiscussedTrope discusses]], [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] and [[AvertedTrope averts]] a whole lot of [[Creator/JaneAusten austenian]] romantic tropes, like LoveTriangle ([[spoiler:Madeleine's other LoveInterest Mitchell ''thinks'' they are in the middle of this, but nothing ever develops of it]]), SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace ([[spoiler:Mitchell's letter saying "Don't marry that guy!" never reaches Madeleine]]) and ThePowerOfLove ([[spoiler:Leonard is unable to get over his bipolar disorder and return to normal life even with Madeleine tending to him]]).
* ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' was originally a commentary on the Regency's idea of romance. The female lead is [[TheSnarkKnight snarky]] and [[SpiritedYoungLady spirited]] instead of being TheIngenue, the male lead is TheStoic and arrogant (traits that were seen as completely unattractive in Jane Austen's day), and LoveAtFirstSight is replaced by BelligerentSexualTension that only abates when Lizzy and Darcy get to know one another and learn not to judge by first impressions. Meanwhile, Lizzie's best friend completely abandons the idea of [[MarryForLove Marrying For Love]] and sells herself to a reasonably high bidder so she won't wind up an Old Maid in a Garret. [[spoiler: Lizzie's youngest sister Lydia]] elopes with the man she loves, and Bad Things happen. A lot of this is lost in ValuesDissonance, as the sexual politics and romance tropes of the Regency period are mostly foreign to the modern reader.
* ''Literature/DespoilersOfTheGoldenEmpire'' is a deconstruction of the prose typically used in science fiction, and pointing out that using very scientific prose can mislead the reader more than it informs them. [[spoiler: It does this by writing about the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro in very flowery, science fiction type prose, misleading the reader as to what sort of story they're reading.]]
* Friedrich Dürrenmatt did this to DetectiveFiction with his novels. He put the focus on character and philosophical subtext instead of crime and punishment.
* ''Literature/GoneGirl'' does this to the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek by telling the story from the husband's point of view. When his wife Amy disappears, Nick is immediately fingered as the culprit, and his life becomes a living hell as the [[IfItBleedsItLeads tabloid media]] pounces upon him and starts dredging up every bad thing he ever did in order to make him look like a murderer. [[spoiler:And he turns out to be innocent. Amy was a BitchInSheepsClothing who faked her kidnapping in order to get revenge on her husband for his cheating, exploiting a media that viewed her as a golden girl in order to frame the story as 'beloved celebrity goes missing and her scumbag husband probably did it'. While Nick is still portrayed as an asshole, Amy doesn't get off any easier.]] All this comes amidst a discourse on the pressures that women face in society, the flaws of the institution of marriage, and the way in which the media handles murder cases by treating suspects as guilty until proven innocent.
* ''The Poisoned Chocolates Case'' by Anthony Berkeley is a deconstruction of Golden Age detective stories in general and the author's short story "The Avenging Chance" in particular. Six amateur detectives decide to solve a poisoning that's mystified the police. In turn, each one announces that they have solved the mystery, and gives TheSummation with evidence to support it - only for the other five to point out all the flaws in their case, and how in reality clues hardly ever point at only one conclusion. One speaker even {{troll}}s the others by making out a case against ''himself'', using the [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Prosecutor's Fallacy]].
* ''Literature/TheMasterKey'': A deconstruction of the {{Edisonade}}, a genre that was popular in the early 1900s but is now [[ForgottenTrope all but forgotten]]. A typical Edisonade featured a [[TeenGenius young]], [[{{Eagleland}} red-blooded American]] [[AlwaysMale lad]] who, through [[GadgeteerGenius his own inborn ingenuity]], creates an invention that would revolutionize the world, promptly uses it to go on a globe-spanning adventure, where he triumphs over [[TheNativesAreRestless savage indigenous tribes]] and [[YellowPeril insidious Orientals]], and returns home with oodles of treasure. In this book, however, while [[ValuesDissonance the racism is unfortunately still present]], the hero stumbles upon the [[TitleDrop master key]] by pure luck, does not understand what he has done, and is given all of his gadgets by the [[BenevolentGenie Demon of Electricity]]. Being a typical teenage boy who [[KnowNothingKnowItAll thinks he knows everything about the world despite never having left his home town]], Rob gets into trouble as soon as he starts his adventure, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero frequently leaves his destinations worse than when he arrived]], gets [[spoiler:captured by bandits through his own stupidity]], [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter blindly does whatever strangers tell him to do]] even though it usually screws him over, takes advantage of his benefactor and his family, and ''never'' learns from his mistakes until [[spoiler:the end, where he, now convinced that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, turns down the Demon's final gifts, gives him a huge [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "fuck you"]], and demands that he depart forever, because TheWorldIsNotReady]]. Though it is implied that he did the right thing in the end, it's still a little bit ambiguous.

* ''Literature/FredTheVampireAccountant'' deconstructs vampire literature. Fred might be a vampire now, but his normally quiet and unassuming personality is still there. He utterly loathes conflict and prefers to buy his blood from a trusted source. He is perfectly content to spend his nights (he tends to sleep during the day) working on other people's taxes, and he's good at it. Sure, things change for him eventually, but his core personality never changes, and he's never the cause of any turmoil. Every book starts with the same preface, where Fred states that everyone is a little more boring than they like to admit or show.
* Literature/AlexRider is this to the TeenSuperspy genre. Though it starts out taking the standard route, each book delves deeper and deeper into the harsh realities a kid his age would be facing being a spy. Lingering injuries, betrayals, learning crushing secrets about those he used to hold in high regard, deteriorating relationships, death of loved ones, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking missing school frequently.]] The toll on his psyche gets progressively worse with every mission and he even has assassins going after him and his friends. The criminal minds he goes against are so deranged and sociopathic you can't blame Alex for wanting to put his entire past behind him in every book. Anthony Horowitz doesn't hold back in showing how dangerous and traumatizing being a teen spy would be.
* ''Literature/SolarDefendersTheRoleOfAShield'' takes apart the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' formula of teenage {{Sentai}} heroes fighting monsters. The kids are "chosen" because they happened to pick up the morphing artifacts dropped by previous Defenders who fell in battle, magical crystals that bonded with them and now they're stuck having to fight to save the town. This has been happening for close to two decades now ever since the AlienInvasion started, and multiple kids have died from fighting the monsters, which has typically been officially explained away as death by car accident or similar. At least one former Defender was DrivenToSuicide after seeing multiple teammates, including her boyfriend, killed in front of her, and one of the few adults who knows the truth about what's going on makes sure to refer them to a good therapist.
* Naomi Alderman's ''Literature/ThePower'' deconstructs the FeministFantasy. When women all over the world develop the ability to [[ShockAndAwe fire electricity from their hands]], it starts out hopefully, as armies of empowered women overthrow misogynistic regimes like Saudi Arabia (a repressive, fundamentalist theocracy) and Moldova (a global hub of [[SexSlave sex trafficking]]) and men learn the hard way that they shouldn't abuse women... but as time goes on, and it grows increasingly apparent that the physical power differential between men and women has been turned on its head, so too are [[PersecutionFlip the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed]]. Men increasingly find themselves becoming what feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir called "the second sex", treated as the inferiors of women and subjected to various forms of gender-based discrimination and violence -- and that's if they're lucky enough to be in a relatively egalitarian country that hasn't simply turned into "''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'' in reverse". The FramingDevice in the prologue reveals that the book was written in a distant future where women have recreated all of the worst elements of the patriarchy, only with themselves on top, as we read a letter from a female writer engaging in casual sexual harassment of a male colleague (the in-universe author of the book) and treating the idea of a world run by men as a silly novelty that would be [[AmazonChaser kinda hot]]. Alderman's [[AnAesop message]] is that merely replacing the men with women is not enough if it still leaves an oppressive system of gender roles in place.
* Inigo Montoya's subplot in ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' is a massive deconstruction of both the {{revenge}} plot and the character whose only purpose in life is revenge. Inigo was still a child when his father was killed, so rather than taking note of things like the name and position of the man who hired his father or what sort of currency he offered to pay with (which would be useful for discovering the man's identity or at least location), he instead is fixated on the detail that stands out as important to a child, that being the extra finger. Then he obsessively trained in swordsmanship to beat the Six Fingered Man... [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining and neglected everything else there was to learn in life]], so he's illiterate, cannot perform simple math, incredibly unworldly (the fact that his father was a half-mad recluse and Inigo was cut off from society even before Domingo was killed doesn't help with that), and the book makes clear that Inigo is completely incapable of functioning in normal society without someone like Vizzini doing the work and thinking for him. And after finishing his sword training, reality smacked Inigo in the face every step of the way, from the fact that he needed to get a job as a mercenary with Vizzini so he could survive. As time goes by he develops a [[TheAlcoholic raging alcoholism problem]] under the psychological weight of fear that he might not ever find the man who killed his father. And while he does take enormous pleasure in killing the Six Fingered Man in the moment, he is immediately hit with a case of AndThenWhat since he now has no motivation and no idea what to do with his life. And what's more, the {{Cliffhanger}} ending of S. Morgenstern's "original work" hints that he might die from the wounds he suffered fighting the Six Fingered Man.
* ''Literature/ThePostman'' was intended as a deconstruction of TheApunkalypse, a genre which was in vogue at the time. The main character is not an unstoppable ''Film/MadMax''-style badass, but rather an ActionSurvivor with varying levels of SurvivorsGuilt and PTSD, a lot of people die from fairly trivial diseases, no-one reveres things from before the apocalypse simply because things that aren't related to survival aren't worth taking seriously, and the Holnists, who would normally be the heroes in this type of work, are treated more like a HordeOfAlienLocusts, stripping bare everything they touch, than a group of actual people. Every single word is all about rubbing in how great civilization is, and how the lawless post-apocalypse is not, in fact, a badass playground, but a nasty, brutal hellhole.
* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' deconstructs the genre of SpyFiction. Actual espionage has neither the flair and glamour of Martini, nor the grit and danger of Beer. Mostly, it's just another boring job. Most intelligence operatives are {{Desk Jockey}}s on Civil Service salaries who spend the days sitting in cubicles and generating the ISO 9000-mandated quantities of paperwork, office politicking rivals are considered to be more imminent threats than whatever the agency is watching for, and even actual espionage is often as unglamorous as showing up with a fake press badge and asking questions or camping out in a bush with a pair of binoculars in the pouring rain.
* ''Literature/ItEndsWithUs'' deconstructs the romance between a woman and a TroubledButCute BadBoy with anger issues (for modern examples, see the ''After'' and ''50 Shades of Grey'' series) by ultimately portraying the relationship as destructive and abusive, with the anger issues of the male lead eventually leading into him becoming physically abusive towards the lead character. The book ends up as a perspective on abusive relationships, as well as what makes people stay in one and how they quit.

* ''Literature/TheIronDream,'' an AlternateHistory {{Mockumentary}} essay about Adolf Hitler's career as a pulp SciFi illustrator turned author, is a deconstruction of the HeroicFantasy genre and the Apocalypse fantasy, intended to show the creepy fascist aspects at its core. Look at some of the older HeroicFantasy books, like the Lensmen Saga, where the protagonists gleefully commit genocide on a troublesome race of aliens, or the Literature/{{Gor}} series, which is basically about how great it is to rape and dominate women. Add all this to the fact that HeroicFantasy grew out of Victorian adventure (and all the [[MightyWhitey white man's burden]] inherent within) and you'll understand where this book is coming from.

** On the flipside, the Sequence also heavily deconstruct the HumanAreWarriors trope. The [=ICoG=] and the Transcendence, two of the most well known and successful human polities, are treated as utterly unhinged, self-destructive and tyrannical. The Sequence is what happens when one use that trope and drive it to its own logical conclusion. Children are expanded as disposable flesh to the meat grinder. Girls from Mars are turned into [[Main/BreedingSlave Breeding Slaves]]. Any and all forms of resources and ingenuity are wasted on war, causing societal stagnation. All aspects of human joy and happiness are erased including the concept of family. ''Entire human sub-species are bred to commit mass suicide''. The Sequence shows that such a trope is nihilistic in its inherent self-destructive nature that should never, ''ever'' be praised.

** For that matter Dune very much deconstructs Main/TheChosenOne narrative associated with this type of genre. Here Paul is the chosen one, but after outside forces such as Lady Jessica altered what had been planned. Likewise while Paul does lead the Freemen, the series shows Paul ascending to the top actually causes a lot of damage and Paul arguably does as much harm as the people he set out to rebel against; all under the religious fanaticisms image he creates around himself.

* The novel ''Literature/DonQuixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes deconstructs the ChivalricRomance by showing how much trouble the chivalric code can cause in the real world, and the dark, unspoken assumptions behind knight's tales (i.e, true gentlemen do not need to work). [[DeconstructorFleet Also a deconstruction of many other genres]], like the RomanceNovel (MayDecemberRomance, FilleFatale), {{Arcadia}}, SecretTestOfCharacter, SweetPollyOliver, GentlemanThief, DeadpanSnarker (SarcasticDevotee and ServileSnarker). It also has {{UnbuiltTrope}}s like StrawFan, LordErrorProne, MadDreamer, CutLexLuthorACheck and BookBurning… and given its status as the first modern novel, it’s full of {{Postmodernism}}.

* ''Literature/ItEndsWithUs'' deconstructs the romance between a woman and a TroubledButCute BadBoy with anger issues by ultimately portraying the relationship as destructive and abusive. The book ends up as a perspective on abusive relationships, as well as what makes people stay in one and how they quit.

* Since, as of this writing, all the examples on this page are positively presented, a reminder should be given that Administrivia/TropesAreNotGood. For instance, there's ''Out of this World'' by Creator/LawrenceWattEvans, which deconstructs both HighFantasy and SpaceOpera. Our hero is an [[ThisLoserIsYou ordinary schlub]], so everything - ''everything'' - he tries [[BoringFailureHero fails miserably]] as the narration remarks that such things [[ThisIsReality only work in fiction]]. DeusAngstMachina rears its ugly head when [[spoiler:the villains rape and murder his wife and daughter]].

* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' deconstructs the genre of SpyFiction. Actual espionage has neither the flair and glamor of Martini, nor the grit and danger of Beer. Mostly, it's just another boring job. Most intelligence operatives are {{Desk Jockey}}s on Civil Service salaries, office politicking rivals are considered to be more imminent threats than whatever the agency is watching for, the organization's political master's insistence on maintaining ISO 9000 standards generate paperwork seemingly for the sole reason of generating an impressive amount of paperwork, and even actual espionage is often as unglamorous as showing up with a fake press badge and asking questions or camping out in a bush with a pair of binoculars in the pouring rain.