After Ontology identifies the uniquely postmodern elements in hermeneutics and deconstruction in order to re-read many of the central texts in modernist literature. In a comparative study that illuminates points of contact between the philosophical positions of Gadamer and Derrida, William D. Melaney discusses Heidegger's influence on both Gadamer's ontological approach to the work of art and Derrida's transformative approach to the cultural text as implicitly postmodern. The difference between these two approaches is presented through a mutual critique of modern aesthetics that demonstrates how deconstruction can contribute to postmodern criticism.

The poetry of Eliot, Pound, and Yeats is examined within this framework, while the crucial example of Joyce is taken up in terms of the production and reception of Ulysses as a seminal influence. The study concludes by emphasizing how Derrida provides an ethical version of hermeneutics that departs from Gadamerian models but can be reconciled with both postmodern insights and historical research.