POST-STRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM(WITH CONCEPTS OF FRENCH WRITERS OF 60S AND 80S)

Prepared by, AMITH V.AJITH

The term postmodern is used rather loosely to refer to a number of theoretical approaches developed since the late 1960s.

The term post-structuralism is generally used to refer to a quintet of French theorists whose major influence on structuralism as occurs in the 80s -- Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, and Roland Barthes

If structuralism relies upon the logic of language, post-structuralism reveals rhetoric as the subversive, poetic sub-conscious of that logic. These writers are post- structuralist in the sense that they demonstrate the dependence of all structures on that which they try to eliminate from their systems.

These writers all have in common an attempt to uncover the unquestioned metaphors that undergird social and disciplinary norms, particularly as manifested in philosophy (Derrida), historical writing and the professions (Foucault), psychoanalysis (Lacan), and literary studies (Kristeva and Barthes).

The fundamentals of the post- structuralists perspective can be found in the literary theories of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida.

Barthes’ concept of inter-textuality and Derrida’s difference provided the basis for a radical epistemology that addressed how language and abstract concepts stand in the way of ever gaining knowledge of the “real world”.

Derrida’s statement- “there is nothing beyond text”.

Derrida proved that the conventional link between signifier and signified is slippery and fragile, thus meaning is more else than structuralists had supposed.

Metaphysics – a phrase coined by Derrida and a thought propagated by Western philosophy that full meaning of a word is ‘present’ in the speaker’s mind, such that it can be transmitted without a significant slipping.

Derrida also provided post-structuralism with a critical perspective on how logo centric claims can be made and justified. He argued that one way users of language attempt to overcome the limitations and circularity of signification, is to define concepts not in terms of what they are, but through their difference from other things.

Derrida suggested that logocentric claims to know the truth about how the world is (or how it should be) - be they derived from art, religion, science or a political dogma - will take one or more of these binary oppositions and privilege or elevate in status one pole of the opposition, ascribing to it some greater value, while downgrading or excluding the other pole.

Jacques Derrida

The broader terrain of Postmodern theory often includes three theorists influenced by but not within poststructuralism: Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and Jean Baudrillard.

Postmodernists and poststructuralists can only be spoken of in the plural. They do not constitute a single school and there is as much disagreement among them as between them and other types of theory.

Michel Foucault is a key postmodern philosopher, who questioned the system building tendencies of structuralism. Foucault focussed on how system building happens in politics by the use of power. This excluded or marginalised groups, who difference keeps them excluded from political power- people such as mentally ill, prisoners and sexual monitors.

Michel Foucault

The emergence of post-structuralist critical approaches within the humanities, sciences and social sciences led Lyotard (1984) to announce the “postmodern condition” affecting scholarship in the latter part of the 20th century. This was defined by a suspicion of all grandeur meta-narratives in science, social science and culture that made absolute claims to truth. Instead, the postmodern condition was marked by doubts over the validity of truth-claims and a willingness to entertain multiple parallel explanations of the social world It was reflected in a rejection of over-arching social models including Marxism and psychoanalysis, pessimism about progress through scientific advances, and in critiques of colonialism, racism, heteronormativity and patriarchy.

Post- structuralist and postmodernist theories within the social sciences criticise the truth-seeking aspirations of post-Enlightenment modernism, which apply rationalist methodologies, including humanism and science. They are suspicious of claims to truth made by scientific disciplines in the physical and biological sciences, social sciences such as economics and politics, and by professional groupings such as law, medicine and education that ground their practice in these bodies of scientific knowledge.

The postmodern turn in social theory is characterized by reflexivity concerning the production of academic texts, a willingness to allow multiple voices to speak in these texts (including those of research “subjects”) and an emphasis on empowering the dispossessed or silenced in societies.

Deleuze and Guattari (1988) assess the nexus of power relations between objects, bodies and ideas that shape the limits on human action and the subject positions that these make possible.

Some Major Figures

Julia KristevaJacques Lacan

Roland Barthes