View source for Post-structuralism

{{Short description|Philosophical school and tradition}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Postmodernism}}
{{Semiotics}}
'''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 (social and political)|power]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/464788 |jstor=464788 |title=The Post-Structuralist Condition |journal=[[Diacritics (journal)|Diacritics]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=2–24 |year=1982 |last1=Lewis |first1=Philip |last2=Descombes |first2=Vincent |last3=Harari |first3=Josue V.}}</ref> Although different post-structuralists present different critiques of structuralism, common themes include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an [[Interrogation (postmodernism)|interrogation]] of the [[binary opposition]]s that constitute its structures. Accordingly, post-structuralism discards the idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed structures.<ref name="Bensmaia05">{{cite book |last=Bensmaïa |first=Réda |date=2005 |chapter=Poststructuralism |pages=92–93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bREQibN9i-sC |title=The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought |editor-first=L. |editor-last=Kritzman |editor-link=Lawrence D. Kritzman |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231107907 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Poster88">{{cite book |author-link=Mark Poster |last=Poster |first=Mark |date=1988 |chapter=Introduction: Theory and the problem of Context |pages=5–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OnWAAAAMAAJ |title=Critical theory and poststructuralism: in search of a context |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801423369 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Merquior1987">[[José Guilherme Merquior|Merquior, José G.]] 1987. ''Foucault'', ([[Fontana Modern Masters]] series). [[University of California Press]]. {{ISBN|0-520-06062-8}}.</ref><ref>[[Edward Craig (philosopher)|Craig, Edward]], ed. 1998. ''[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy|Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy]],'' vol. 7 (''Nihilism to Quantum mechanics''). London: [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|0-415-18712-5}}. p. 597.</ref>

''Structuralism'' proposes that human [[culture]] can be understood by means of a [[Structural linguistics|structure that is modeled on language]]. As a result, there is concrete [[reality]] on the one hand, abstract [[idea]]s about reality on the other hand, and a "third order" that mediates between the two.<ref>[[Gilles Deleuze|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.</ref> 

A post-structuralist response, 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harcourt |first=Bernard E. |date=12 March 2007 |title=An Answer to the Question: "What Is Poststructuralism?" |url=https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=public_law_and_legal_theory |journal=Chicago Unbound - Public Law and Legal Theory |volume=156 |pages=17–19}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.4135/9781446215432.n10 |chapter=Poststructuralist Theories |title=Approaches to Human Geography |pages=122–135 |year=2006 |last1=Harrison |first1=Paul |isbn=9780761942634 |editor1-first=Stuart |editor1-last=Aitken |editor2-first=Gill |editor2-last=Valentine |chapter-url=https://freegeobook.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/0761942637.pdf |location=London |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]]}}</ref>

== History ==
Post-structuralism emerged in [[France]] during the 1960s as a movement critiquing [[structuralism]]. According to [[José Guilherme Merquior|J.&nbsp;G. Merquior]], a [[love–hate relationship]] with structuralism developed among many leading French thinkers in the 1960s.<ref name="Merquior1987" /> The period was marked by the rebellion of students and workers against the state in [[May 1968 events in France|May 1968]].

In a 1966 lecture titled "[[Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences]]", [[Jacques Derrida]] presented a thesis on an apparent rupture in intellectual life. Derrida interpreted this event as a "decentering" of the former intellectual cosmos. Instead of progress or divergence from an identified centre, Derrida described this "event" as a kind of "play."

A year later, in 1967, [[Roland Barthes]] published "[[The Death of the Author]]", in which he announced a metaphorical event: the "death" of the author as an authentic source of meaning for a given text. Barthes argued that any literary text has multiple meanings and that the author was not the prime source of the work's semantic content. The "Death of the Author," Barthes maintained, was the "Birth of the Reader," as the source of the proliferation of meanings of the text.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barthes |first=Roland |title=Image, Music, Text |publisher=Hill & Wang |year=1977 |isbn=0809057409 |location=New York |translator-last=Heath |translator-first=Stephen}}</ref>

=== Barthes and the need for metalanguage ===
In ''[[Elements of Semiology]]'' (1967), Barthes advances the concept of the ''[[metalanguage]]'', a systematized way of talking about concepts like meaning and grammar beyond the constraints of a traditional (first-order) language; in a metalanguage, symbols replace words and phrases. Insofar as one metalanguage is required for one explanation of the first-order language, another may be required, so metalanguages may actually replace first-order languages. Barthes exposes how this structuralist system is regressive; orders of language rely upon a metalanguage by which it is explained, and therefore [[deconstruction]] itself is in danger of becoming a metalanguage, thus exposing all languages and discourse to scrutiny. Barthes' other works contributed deconstructive theories about texts.

=== Derrida's lecture at Johns Hopkins ===
The occasional designation of post-structuralism as a movement can be tied to the fact that mounting criticism of Structuralism became evident at approximately the same time that Structuralism became a topic of interest in universities in the United States. This interest led to a colloquium at [[Johns Hopkins University]] in 1966 titled "The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man", to which such French philosophers as [[Jacques Derrida]], [[Roland Barthes]], and [[Jacques Lacan]] were invited to speak.

Derrida's lecture at that conference, "[[Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences|Structure, Sign, and Play in the Human Sciences]]", was one of the earliest to propose some theoretical limitations to Structuralism, and to attempt to theorize on terms that were clearly no longer structuralist.

The element of "play" in the title of Derrida's essay is often erroneously interpreted in a linguistic sense, based on a general tendency towards puns and humour, while [[social constructionism]] as developed in the later work of [[Michel Foucault]] is said to create play in the sense of strategic agency by laying bare the levers of historical change<!--what are the "levers of historical change" specifically?-->.

== Post-structuralism and structuralism ==
[[Structuralism]], as an intellectual movement in France in the 1950s and 1960s, studied underlying structures in [[Cultural artifact|cultural products]] (such as [[text (literary theory)|text]]s) and used analytical concepts from [[linguistics]], [[psychology]], [[anthropology]], and other fields to [[Interpretation (disambiguation)|interpret]] those structures. Structuralism posits the concept of [[binary opposition]], in which frequently-used pairs of opposite-but-related words (concepts) are often arranged in a hierarchy; for example: [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]/[[Romanticism|Romantic]], male/female, speech/writing, rational/emotional, signified/signifier, symbolic/imaginary, and east/west.

Post-structuralism rejects the structuralist notion that the dominant word in a pair is dependent on its [[:wikt: subservient|subservient]] counterpart, and instead argues that founding knowledge on either pure experience ([[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]]) or on [[system]]atic structures (structuralism) is impossible,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDi6guWdpfIC |title=Gilles Deleuze |isbn=9781134578023 |last1=Colebrook |first1=Claire |author-link=Claire Colebrook |date=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=2 |series=Routledge Critical Thinkers |quote=''Post''-structuralism responded to the impossibility of founding [[knowledge]] either on pure experience (phenomenology) or systematic structures (structuralism). |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> because history and culture actually condition the study of underlying structures, and these are subject to biases and misinterpretations. [[Gilles Deleuze]] and others saw this impossibility not as a failure or loss, but rather as a cause for "celebration and liberation."<ref name="Colebrook">{{Cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dDi6guWdpfIC&pg=PA2 | title = Gilles Deleuze |isbn = 9781134578023 |last1 = Colebrook |first1 = Claire |date = 2002 |publisher= Routledge|page= 2|series= Routledge Critical Thinkers | quote = In Deleuze's case, like many other post-structuralists, this recognised impossibility of organising life into closed structures was not a failure or loss but a cause for celebration and liberation.}}</ref> A post-structuralist approach argues that to understand an object (a text, for example), one must study both the object itself and the [[system]]s of knowledge that produced the object.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.3817/0383055195 |title=Structuralism and Post-Structuralism: An Interview with Michel Foucault |journal=[[Telos (journal)|Telos]] |volume=1983 |issue=55 |pages=195–211 |year=1983 |last1=Raulet |first1=Gerard |s2cid=144500134}}</ref> The uncertain boundaries between structuralism and post-structuralism become further blurred by the fact that scholars rarely label themselves as post-structuralists. Some scholars associated with structuralism, such as [[Roland Barthes]] and [[Michel Foucault]], also became noteworthy in post-structuralism.<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.1017/UPO9781844653683 |title=Understanding Poststructuralism |year=2005 |last1=Williams |first1=James |isbn=9781844653683 |publisher=[[Routledge]]}}</ref>

== Authors ==
The following are often said to be post-structuralists, or to have had a post-structuralist period:

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Kathy Acker]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Muth |first=Katie R. |date=2011 |title=Postmodern Fiction as Poststructuralist Theory: Kathy Acker's "Blood and Guts in High School" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41289288 |journal=Narrative |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=86–110 |jstor=41289288 |issn=1063-3685}}</ref>
* [[Giorgio Agamben]]<ref>{{Citation |last=McWhorter |first=Ladelle |title=Post-structuralism and Race: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault |date=2017 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315884424-9/post-structuralism-race-ladelle-mcwhorter |work=The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315884424-9 |isbn=978-1-315-88442-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Jean Baudrillard]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=V. Postmodern & Poststructuralist Theories  |url=https://culturalpolitics.net/index/cultural_theory/postmodern |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Cultural Politics }}</ref>
* [[Roland Barthes]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Translation |first=International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and |title=A Critical Analysis of the Post-structuralist Thought with Reference to 'The Death of the Author' by Roland Barthes {{!}} International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation |journal=International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation |date=30 January 2021 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=195–197 |doi=10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.1.18 |url=https://al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/ijllt/article/view/1017 |language=en-US|doi-access=free }}</ref>
* [[Wendy Brown (political theorist)|Wendy Brown]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Relations |first=E.-International |date=2017-04-25 |title=Interview - Wendy Brown |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2017/04/25/interview/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=E-International Relations |language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Judith Butler]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barvosa-Carter |first=Edwina |date=2001-04-01 |title=Strange Tempest: Agency, Poststructuralism, and the Shape of Feminist Politics to Come |url=https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010150325561 |journal=International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=123–137 |doi=10.1023/A:1010150325561 |s2cid=140450434 |issn=1573-8167|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Rey Chow]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pourgouris |first=Marinos |date=September 2010 |title=Rey Chow and the hauntological spectres of poststructuralism |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2010.508832 |journal=Postcolonial Studies |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=275–288 |doi=10.1080/13688790.2010.508832 |s2cid=143221257 |issn=1368-8790|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Hélène Cixous]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Poststructuralism: Faith and Lacan |date=2022 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/literary-critique-modernism-and-the-transformation-of-theory/poststructuralism-faith-and-lacan/17E690910E891B494A048DC0E3D1BAB3 |work=Literary Critique, Modernism and the Transformation of Theory |pages=215–238 |editor-last=Mitrano |editor-first=Mena |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-3995-1324-1}}</ref>
* [[Jodi Dean]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/the-minnesota-review/article-abstract/2013/81/79/47941/Repoliticizing-the-LeftAn-Interview-with-Jodi-Dean |title= Repoliticizing the Left: An Interview with Jodi Dean |url-access=registration |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=read.dukeupress.edu}}</ref>
* [[Gilles Deleuze]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Poststructuralism as philosophy of difference: Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition |date=2005 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-poststructuralism/poststructuralism-as-philosophy-of-difference-gilles-deleuzes-difference-and-repetition/8F9EC47224EAB5F5BAA5B0339B9EF937 |work=Understanding Poststructuralism |pages=53–78 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=James |access-date=2023-05-18 |series=Understanding Movements in Modern Thought |publisher=Acumen Publishing |doi=10.1017/UPO9781844653683.003 |isbn=978-1-84465-032-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Jacques Derrida]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post-structuralism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/post-structuralism/v-1#:~:text=Post-structuralism%20is%20a%20late,de%20Saussure's%20work%20on%20linguistics. |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.rep.routledge.com |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Umberto Eco]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Nöth |first=Winfried |title=Umberto Eco in His Own Words |chapter=Umberto Eco: Structuralist and Poststructuralist at Once |date=2017-08-21 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501507144-014/html |pages=111–118 |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781501507144-014 |isbn=978-1-5015-0714-4}}</ref>
* [[John Fiske (media studies)|John Fiske]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fiske |first=John |date=January 1986 |title=MTV: Post-Structural Post-Modern |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/019685998601000110 |journal=Journal of Communication Inquiry |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=74–79 |doi=10.1177/019685998601000110 |s2cid=143414557 |issn=0196-8599|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Michel Foucault]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Poststructuralism, history, genealogy: Michel Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge |date=2005 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-poststructuralism/poststructuralism-history-genealogy-michel-foucaults-the-archaeology-of-knowledge/9D0E23D08B58AF31FAB4D5C02A3F1B00 |work=Understanding Poststructuralism |pages=105–132 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=James |access-date=2023-05-18 |series=Understanding Movements in Modern Thought |publisher=Acumen Publishing |doi=10.1017/UPO9781844653683.005 |isbn=978-1-84465-032-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Nancy Fraser]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kintz |first=Linda |date=2003 |editor-last=Hanssen |editor-first=Beatrice |title=Ethically Challenged: The Impasse between Poststructuralism and Critical Theory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4122573 |journal=Comparative Literature |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=338–349 |doi=10.2307/4122573 |jstor=4122573 |issn=0010-4124|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Félix Guattari]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Arrigo |first=Adam J. Duso , Bruce A. |title=Post-structuralism and criminology |date=2017 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315744902-80/post-structuralism-criminology-adam-duso-bruce-arrigo |work=The Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts |pages=357–361 |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315744902-80 |isbn=978-1-315-74490-2|s2cid=171580517 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Luce Irigaray]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berg |first=Maggie |date=1991 |title=Luce Irigaray's "Contradictions": Poststructuralism and Feminism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174445 |journal=Signs |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=50–70 |doi=10.1086/494713 |jstor=3174445 |s2cid=143878117 |issn=0097-9740|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Julia Kristeva]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, linguistics: Julia Kristeva's Revolution in Poetic Language |date=2005 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-poststructuralism/poststructuralism-psychoanalysis-linguistics-julia-kristevas-revolution-in-poetic-language/0970F1E0A63560DE58ECF39D08DEFD85 |work=Understanding Poststructuralism |pages=133–152 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=James |access-date=2023-05-18 |series=Understanding Movements in Modern Thought |publisher=Acumen Publishing |doi=10.1017/UPO9781844653683.006 |isbn=978-1-84465-032-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Teresa de Lauretis]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Teresa de Lauretis |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095708188 |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en }}</ref>
* [[Sarah Kofman]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=bloomsbury.com |title=Nietzsche and Metaphor |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/nietzsche-and-metaphor-9780485120981/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Bloomsbury |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Jacques Lacan]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marta |first=Jan |date=1987-03-01 |title=Lacan and post-Structuralism |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252332 |journal=The American Journal of Psychoanalysis |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=51–57 |doi=10.1007/BF01252332 |pmid=2437811 |s2cid=21435280 |issn=1573-6741|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fynsk |first=Christopher |date=2007 |title=Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, 1940–2007 |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/obituary/philippe-lacoue-labarthe-1940-2007 |journal=Radical Philosophy |language=en-GB |issue=144 |issn=0300-211X}}</ref>
* [[Ernesto Laclau]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Thomas |date=2018-10-02 |title=The Dislocated Universe of Laclau and Mouffe: An Introduction to Post-Structuralist Discourse Theory |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08913811.2018.1565731 |journal=Critical Review |language=en |volume=30 |issue=3–4 |pages=294–315 |doi=10.1080/08913811.2018.1565731 |s2cid=150207035 |issn=0891-3811|hdl=1854/LU-8600661 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
* [[Jean-François Lyotard]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Williams |first=James |title=Poststructuralism as philosophy of the event: Jean-François Lyotard's Discours, figure |date=2005 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315712192-4/poststructuralism-philosophy-event-jean-fran%C3%A7ois-lyotard-discours-figure-james-williams |work=Understanding Poststructuralism |pages=79–103 |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315712192-4 |isbn=978-1-315-71219-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Achille Mbembe]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weate |first=Jeremy |date=2003 |title=Achille Mbembe and the Postcolony: Going beyond the Text |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4618326 |journal=Research in African Literatures |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=27–41 |doi=10.2979/RAL.2003.34.4.27 |jstor=4618326 |s2cid=145292313 |issn=0034-5210|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Todd May (philosopher)|Todd May]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism By Todd May |url=https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-01045-2.html |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.psupress.org}}</ref>
* [[Chantal Mouffe]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leggett |first=Will |date=March 2013 |title=Restoring society to post-structuralist politics: Mouffe, Gramsci and radical democracy |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0191453712473080 |journal=Philosophy & Social Criticism |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=299–315 |doi=10.1177/0191453712473080 |s2cid=147566983 |issn=0191-4537|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Jean-Luc Nancy]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fagan |first=Madeleine |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt5hh2xg |title=Ethics and Politics after Poststructuralism: Levinas, Derrida and Nancy |date=2013 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-8513-4 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt5hh2xg }}</ref>
* [[Avital Ronell]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |title=Avital Ronell |url=https://egs.edu/biography/avital-ronell-2/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=The European Graduate School |language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Bernard Stiegler]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Turner |first=Ben |date=2017-01-02 |title=Ideology and Post-structuralism after Bernard Stiegler |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2016.1253135 |journal=Journal of Political Ideologies |language=en |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=92–110 |doi=10.1080/13569317.2016.1253135 |s2cid=151333183 |issn=1356-9317|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Mongia |first=Padmini |title=Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Poststructuralism, Marginality, Postcoloniality and Value* |date=1996 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003135593-14/gayatri-chakravorty-spivak-padmini-mongia |work=Contemporary Postcolonial Theory |access-date=2023-05-18 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781003135593-14 |isbn=978-1-003-13559-3|s2cid=234163391 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Div col end}}

== Criticism ==
Some observers from outside of the post-structuralist camp have questioned the rigour and legitimacy of the field. American philosopher [[John Searle]]
suggested in 1990: "The spread of 'poststructuralist' [[literary theory]] is perhaps the best-known example of a silly but non-catastrophic phenomenon."<ref>Searle, John. (1990). "[http://www.ditext.com/searle/searle1.html The Storm Over the University]." ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', 6 December 1990.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Searle |first1=John |date=6 December 1990 |title=The Storm Over the University |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/12/06/the-storm-over-the-university/ |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=37 |issue=19 |location=New York |issn=0028-7504 |access-date=6 June 2020 |author1-link=John Searle}}</ref> Similarly, physicist [[Alan Sokal]] in 1997 criticized "the [[postmodernism|postmodernist]]/poststructuralist gibberish that is now [[hegemonic]] in some sectors of the American academy."<ref>Sokal, Alan. 1997. "[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/le_monde_english.html Professor Latour's Philosophical Mystifications]." (Originally published in French in ''[[Le Monde]]'', 31 January 1997; translated by the author.)</ref>

Literature scholar [[Norman Holland]] in 1992 saw post-structuralism as flawed due to reliance on [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussure]]'s linguistic model, which was seriously challenged by the 1950s and was soon abandoned by linguists:<blockquote>Saussure's views are not held, so far as I know, by modern linguists, only by literary critics and the occasional philosopher. [Strict adherence to Saussure] has elicited wrong [[film theory|film]] and literary theory on a grand scale. One can find dozens of books of literary theory bogged down in signifiers and signifieds, but only a handful that refers to [[Chomsky]]."<ref>Holland, Norman N. (1992) ''The Critical I'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0-231-07650-9}}, p. 140.</ref></blockquote>

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Development criticism]]
* [[Narrative therapy]]
* [[Post-postmodernism]]
* [[Post-structural feminism]]
* [[Post-structuralist subject]]
* [[Poststructuralism (international relations)]]
* [[Reader-response criticism]]
* [[Semiotics]]
* [[Social criticism]]
* [[Social theory]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* [[Johannes Angermuller|Angermuller, J.]] (2015): ''Why There Is No Poststructuralism in France. The Making of an Intellectual Generation.'' London: Bloomsbury.
* [[Johannes Angermuller|Angermuller, J.]] (2014): ''Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis. Subjectivity in Enunciative Pragmatics.'' Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
* Barry, P. ''Beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory''. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2002.
* Barthes, Roland. ''Elements of Semiology''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967.
* [[J. A. Cuddon|Cuddon, J. A.]] ''Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory''. London: Penguin, 1998.
* Eagleton, T. ''Literary theory: an introduction'' Basil Blackwell, Oxford,1983.
* Matthews, E. ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
* {{cite book|last=Morland|first=Dave|chapter=Anti-capitalism and poststructuralist anarchism|title=Changing Anarchism: Anarchist Theory and Practice in a Global Age|url=https://archive.org/details/changinganarchis00bowe|url-access=limited|editor-last1=Bowen|editor-first1=James|editor-last2=Purkis|editor-first2=Jon|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]|year=2004|isbn=0-7190-6694-8|pages=23–38}}
* Ryan, M. ''Literary theory: a practical introduction''. Blackwell Publishers Inc, Massachusetts,1999.
* Wolfreys, J & Baker, W (eds). ''Literary theories: a case study in critical performance''. Macmillan Press, Hong Kong,1996.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box}}{{Commons category}}
*[http://hydra.humanities.uci.edu/derrida/sign-play.html ''Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences'' - Jacques Derrida]
*{{Cite book |jstor = 10.3366/j.ctt1g09vw4|title = The Baudrillard Dictionary|year = 2010|isbn = 9780748639229|editor-last1 = Smith|editor-first1 = Richard G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyCrBgAAQBAJ|publisher=Edinburgh University Press}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050728125303/http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/poststruct.html "Some Post-Structural Assumptions" - John Lye]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110523082835/http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/pomo.html Talking pomo: An analysis of the post-modern movement, by Steve Mizrach]
*[https://foucault.info/ Information on Michel Foucault, including an archive of writings and lectures]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091206043349/http://poststructuralism.info/ poststructuralism.info] - A collaborative website that aims to allow users not only to describe post-structuralist ideas but to create new ideas and concepts based on post-structuralist foundations

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[[Category:Post-structuralism| ]]
[[Category:Philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Postmodern theory]]