Post-structuralism in France
Сочинение - Иностранные языки
Другие сочинения по предмету Иностранные языки
Beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory proposes to list differences and distinctions between structuralism and post-structuralism under the four following headings [1, p.62-63]:
1. Origins. Structuralism derives ultimately from linguistics. Linguistics is a discipline which has always been inherently confident about the possibility of establishing objective knowledge. It believes that if we observe accurately, collect data systematically, and make logical deductions then we can reach reliable conclusions about language and the world. Structuralism inherits this confidently scientific outlook: it too believes in method, system, and reason as being able to establish reliable truths.
By contrast, post-structuralism derives ultimately from philosophy. Philosophy is a discipline which has always tended to emphasise the difficulty of achieving secure knowledge about things. Philosophy is, so to speak, sceptical by nature and usually undercuts and questions commonsensical notions and assumptions. Its procedures often begin by calling into question what is usually taken for granted as simply the way things are. Post-structuralism inherits this habit of scepticism, and intensifies it. It regards any confidence in the scientific method as naive, and even derives a certain masochistic intellectual pleasure from knowing for certain that we cant know anything for certain, fully conscious of the irony and paradox which doing this entails.
. Tone and style. Structuralist writing tends towards abstraction and generalisation: it aims for a detached, scientific coolness of tone. Given its derivation from linguistic science, this is what we would expect. The style is neutral and anonymous, as is typical of scientific writing.structuralist writing, by contrast, tends to be much more emotive. Often the tone is urgent and euphoric, and the style flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Titles may well contain puns and allusions, and often the central line of the argument is based on a pun or a word-play of some kind. Often deconstructive writing fixes on some material aspect of language, such as a metaphor used by a writer, or the etymology of a word. Overall it seems to aim for an engaged warmth rather than detached coolness.
. Attitude to language. Structuralists accept that the world is constructed through language, in the sense that we do not have access to reality other than through the linguistic medium. All the same, it decides to live with that fact and continue to use language to think and perceive with. After all, language is an orderly system, not a chaotic one, so realising our dependence upon it need not induce intellectual despair.contrast, post-structuralism is much more fundamentalist in insisting upon the consequences of the view that, in effect, reality itself is textual. Post-structuralism develops what threaten to become terminal anxieties about the possibility of achieving any knowledge through language. The verbal sign, in its view, is constantly floating free of the concept it is supposed to designate. Thus, the post-structuralists way of speaking about language involves a rather obsessive imagery based on liquids - signs float free of what they designate, meanings are fluid, and subject to constant slippage or spillage. This linguistic liquid, slopping about and swilling over unpredictably, defies our attempts to carry signification carefully from giver to receive in the containers we call words. We are not fully in control of the medium of language, so meanings cannot be planted in set places, like somebody planting a row of potato seeds; they can only be randomly scattered or disseminated, like the planter walking along and scattering seed with broad sweeps of the arm, so that much of it lands unpredictably or drifts in the wind., the meanings words have can never be guaranteed one hundred per cent pure. Thus, words are always contaminated by their opposites - you cant define night without reference to day, or good without reference to evil. Or else they are interfered with by their own history, so that obsolete senses retain a troublesome and ghostly presence within present-day usage, and are likely to materialise just when we thought it was safe to use them. Thus, a seemingly innocent word like guest, is etymologically cognate with hostis, which means an enemy or a stranger, thereby inadvertently manifesting the always potentially unwelcome status of the guest., the long-dormant metaphorical bases of words are often reactiviated by their use in philosophy or literature and then interfere with literal sense, or with the stating of single meanings. Linguistic anxiety, then, is a keynote of the post-structuralist outlook.
. Project. Here project means the fundamental aims of each movement, what it is they want to persuade us of. Structuralism, firstly, questions our way of structuring and categorising reality, and prompts us to break free of habitual modes of perception or categorisation, but it believes that we can thereby attain a more reliable view of things.structuralism is much more fundamental: it distrusts the very notion of reason, and the idea of the human being as an independent entity, preferring the notion of the dissolved or constructed subject, whereby what we may think of as the individual is really a product of social and linguistic forces - that is, not an essence at all, merely a tissue of textualities. Thus, its torch of scepticism burns away the intellectual ground on which the Western civilisation is built., we can draw a conclusion that post-structuralism is a late 20th century movement in philosophy and literary criticism, which generally defines itself in its opposition to structuralism. Post-structuralism emerged in France during the 1960s, a period of political disorder, rebellions and disappointment with traditional values, accompanied by a revival of interest in feminism, Western Marxism, phenomenology and nihilism. Two main figures in the early post-structuralist movement were Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes.
The focus of post-structuralism is on the inherent uncertainty in our various systems of expression, beginning with language. Post-structuralism features a critique of the assumption of meaning in language when meaning is no longer distinguished by a shared social agreement. Post-structuralism thus clarifies the function of choice in human action.structuralism offers a study of how knowledge is produced and a critique of structuralism. It doesnt approve of the study of underlying structures. To understand an object (e.g. one of the many meanings of a text), a post-structuralist approach argues, it is necessary to study both the object itself and the systems of knowledge that produced the object.
From the point of view of textual analysis post-structuralism doesnt focus on the author, but on the reader. The reader replaces the author as the primary subject of inquiry. And without a central fixation on the author, post-structuralists examine other sources for meaning (readers, cultural norms, other literature, etc.), which are therefore never authoritative, and promise no consistency.are some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism:
.Structuralism derives ultimately from linguistics. It inherits this confidently scientific outlook: it too believes in method, system, and reason as being able to establish reliable truths. Post-structuralism derives ultimately from philosophy. It inherits this habit of scepticism, and intensifies it. It regards any confidence in the scientific method as naive, and proclaims the idea that we cant know anything for certain.
2.Structuralist writing tends towards abstraction and generalisation: it aims for a detached, scientific coolness of tone. Post-structuralist writing, by contrast, tends to be much more emotive. It seems to aim for an engaged warmth rather than detached coolness.
.Structuralists accept that the world is constructed through language, in the sense that we do not have access to reality other than through the linguistic medium. Post-structuralism argues that reality itself is textual. People are not fully in control of the medium of language, so meanings cannot be planted in set places. Thats why linguistic anxiety is a keynote of the post-structuralist outlook.
.Structuralism questions our way of structuring and categorising reality, and inspires us to break free of habitual modes of categorisation, but it believes that we can thereby attain a more reliable view of things. Post-structuralism distrusts the very notion of reason, and the idea of the human being as an independent entity, preferring the notion of the constructed subject, whereby what we may think of as the individual is really a product of social and linguistic forces.
post structuralism derrida barthes foucault
CHAPTER 2. MAJOR WORKS AND CONCEPTS OF POST-STRUCTURALISM
2.1. Derridas Deconstruction
Jacques Derrida is a central figure in the development of post-structuralism. He believed that at the root of Western philosophical thought is a fundamental distinction between speech (logos) and writing. Speech is privileged as the expression of what is immediate and present, the source, accordingly, of what is real, true and certain. Writing, on the other hand, is derogated as an inferior imitation of speech, the residue of speech that is no longer present and, therefore, the locus of appearance, deceptions and uncertainty. Derrida finds the distinction pervading Western philosophy and regards it as not just a preference for one form of communication over another but the basis for the entire set of hierarchical oppositions that characterize philosophical thought. Speech offers presence, t