Editing Post-structuralism (section)

{{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 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>