Post-structuralism

Postmodernism
Preceded by Modernism
Postmodernity
Fields
Reactions
Related
Semiotics
 
General concepts
Fields
Methods
Semioticians
Related topics

Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of power.[1] Although post-structuralists all present different critiques of structuralism, common themes among them include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute its structures. Accordingly, post-structuralism discards the idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed structures.[2][3][4][5]

Structuralism proposes that human culture can be understood by means of a structure that is modeled on language. As a result, there is concrete reality on the one hand, abstract ideas about reality on the other hand, and a "third order" that mediates between the two.[6]

A post-structuralist critique, then, might suggest that in order to build meaning out of such an interpretation, one must (falsely) assume that the definitions of these signs are both valid and fixed, and that the author employing structuralist theory is somehow above and apart from these structures they are describing so as to be able to wholly appreciate them. The rigidity and tendency to categorize intimations of universal truths found in structuralist thinking is a common target of post-structuralist thought, while also building upon structuralist conceptions of reality mediated by the interrelationship between signs.[7]

Writers whose works are often characterised as post-structuralist include Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean Baudrillard, although many theorists who have been called "post-structuralist" have rejected the label.[8]

  1. ^ Lewis, Philip; Descombes, Vincent; Harari, Josue V. (1982). "The Post-Structuralist Condition". Diacritics. 12 (1): 2–24. doi:10.2307/464788. JSTOR 464788.
  2. ^ Bensmaïa, Réda (2005). "Poststructuralism". In Kritzman, L. (ed.). The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought. Columbia University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 9780231107907 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Poster, Mark (1988). "Introduction: Theory and the problem of Context". Critical theory and poststructuralism: in search of a context. Cornell University Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN 9780801423369 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Merquior, José G. 1987. Foucault, (Fontana Modern Masters series). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06062-8.
  5. ^ Craig, Edward, ed. 1998. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, vol. 7 (Nihilism to Quantum mechanics). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18712-5. p. 597.
  6. ^ Deleuze, Gilles. [2002] 2004. "How Do We Recognize Structuralism?" Pp. 170–92 in Desert Islands and Other Texts 1953–1974, translated by D. Lapoujade, edited by M. Taormina, Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents series. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1-58435-018-0. pp. 171–73.
  7. ^ Harcourt, Bernard E. (12 March 2007). "An Answer to the Question: "What Is Poststructuralism?"". Chicago Unbound - Public Law and Legal Theory. 156: 17–19.
  8. ^ Harrison, Paul (2006). "Poststructuralist Theories" (PDF). In Aitken, Stuart; Valentine, Gill (eds.). Approaches to Human Geography. London: SAGE Publications. pp. 122–135. doi:10.4135/9781446215432.n10. ISBN 9780761942634.