Post-structuralism

Welcome to the Department of Post-structuralism part of the  School of Philosophy. This is the department to explore all things Post-structural. To get you started here is the introduction to the Wikipedia article on the subject.

Post-structuralism is a broad historical description of intellectual developments in Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory originating in France in the 1960s. The prefix "post" refers to the fact that many contributors such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva were highly critical of structuralism. In direct contrast to structuralism's claims of culturally independent meaning, post-structuralists typically view culture as integral to meaning.

Post-structuralism is difficult to define or to sum up. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, by its very nature, post-structuralism rejects definitions that claim to have discovered 'truths' or facts about the world [1] Secondly, very few people have willingly taken the label 'post-structuralist'. Rather, they have been labeled so by others. This means that no-one has ever felt compelled to construct a 'manifesto' of post-structuralism. [2] Thus its exact nature and whether it can be considered a single philosophical movement is debated.

## Department news

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* Department founded \- 23 November 2006

## Learning projects

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* Michel Foucault reading group

## Active participants

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Active participants

* Mystictim 23:49, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
* Executivezen 21:51, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

## Reading List

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The following works give useful outlines of poststructuralism:

Davis, C. After Poststructuralism: Reading, Stories and Theory, Routledge, London, 2004
Williams, J, Understanding Poststructuralism, Acumen, Chesham, 2005

The following works give useful outlines of poststructuralism as it relates to education:

Martausewicz, R. Seeking Passage: Post-Structuralism, Pedagogy and Ethics, Teachers College

Press, Columbia University 2001
Peters, M (ed.), Naming the Multiple: Poststructuralism and Education, Bergin and Garvey,

Westport, CN, 1998
St.Pierre, E & Pillow, W, Working the Ruins: Feminist Poststructural Theory and Methods in

Education, Routledge, New York, 2000

The following works give a general overview of poststructuralism and postmodernism from a literary theory perspective:

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.
Cuddon, J. A. Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1998.
Eagleton, T. Literary theory: an introduction Basil Blackwell, Oxford,1983.
Foucault, Michel. Society Must be Defended. (Trans. David Macey). Bertani, Mauro & Fontana,

Alessandro (eds.). Picador, NY 2003.
Lévinas, Emmanuel. Humanism of the Other. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003. p. 11-:12.
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.

## Discussion questions and essay ideas

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* How can poststructuralism be defined?
* What are some practical applications for ideas related to poststructuralism?