What is aporia?

In relation to Jaques Derrida, father of deconstruction,
aporia is the technical term applied to logical or rhetorical
perplexities, impassable difficulties, logical paradoxes, and puzzlements. When
understood in relation to deconstruction of literature, aporia demarcates a point where
a text exhibits deconstruction characteristics: the text dismantles itself, deconstructs
itself, or undermines its own rhetorical foundations. In other words, it is a place in a
text where the binary oppositions and the difference underlying meaning cause the text
to deconstruct its unity and establish a perplexity or paradox by saying what isn't
overtly authored in the text. For example, it might be said that Austen's novels
establish aporias of paradox when servants are mentioned in passing thus revealing in
the text a divided community of others while overtly addressing
unification of the community. The paradoxical aporia [i.e., perplexity, puzzlement] of
otherness and unity deconstructs the text as the unity of
community--and of text--is dismantled through the presence of otherwise invisible
servants. Aporia is a term from Greek philosophy that Derrida appropriated for use in
deconstruction, which is a critical theory applied to various studies such as
philosophy, art, and literature.