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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 32: Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction and Cultural Studies

Unit 32: Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction Notes

and Cultural Studies

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
32.1 Post-Structuralism
32.2 Deconstruction
32.3 Cultural Studies
32.3.1 Growth and Development
32.3.2 Importance
32.3.3 Salient Features
32.4 Summary
32.5 Keywords
32.6 Review Questions
32.7 Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Describe post structuralism and deconstruction.
Define growth and development.
Explain importance and salient features.

Introduction

Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous
works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and
’70s. The label primarily encompasses the intellectual developments of prominent mid-20th-
century French and continental philosophers and theorists.
Answ
32.1 Post-Structuralism

The post-structuralist movement is difficult to summarize, but may be broadly understood as a
body of distinct responses to Structuralism. An intellectual movement developed in Europe from
the early to mid-20th century, Structuralism argued that human culture may be understood by
means of a structure-—modeled on language (ie., structural linguistics)—that is distinct both from
the organizations of reality and the organization of ideas and imagination—a “third order.” The
precise nature of the revision or critique of structuralism differs with each post-structuralist author,
though common themes include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of the structures that
structuralism posits and an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute those structures.
Writers whose work is often characterised as post-structuralist include Jacques Derrida, Michel
Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva.
The movement is closely related to postmodernism. As with structuralism, antihumanism, as a
rejection of the enlightenment subject, is often a central tenet. Existential phenomenology is a
significant influence; one commentator has argued that post-structuralists might just as accurately
be called “post-phenomenologists.”
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