Although the term ‘deconstruction’ is closely associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, deconstructive theory and practice has been appropriated and extended by a variety of groups (feminists and marxists in particular). Most attempts to define deconstruction inevitably return to Derrida's writings; it must be pointed out, however, that in addition to those versions of deconstruction that are closely related to Derrida's work, there are American versions of deconstruction (the so-called Yale school of de Man, Hartman, Hillis-Miller and others, for instance), and what might be called Neo-Marxist forms of deconstruction (involving prominent theorists such as Ernesto Laclau and Gayatri Spivak).