[PEN-L:28537] Re: rejecting a school

[<christian11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>BTW, how is "post-structuralism" defined? I'm "post-structuralist" since I
learned from the Althusserian structuralists without but moved on. But I don't
think that's what the term means...


It all depends on who's doing the defining, of course. However, you might
think of structuralism as relying on the claim that _everything_ can be
clearly mapped into social, ideological, semantic, cultural system(s). Such
systems are knowable (even if not easily so). In the "bad" (some would say
Althusserian--I wouldn't say this)version, human agency is a thing like other
things--a calendar, a watch, daytime--and so can't be counted on to change the
system's rules.

The basic gesture of post-structuralist critique is to point out that the
"structure" of structure has a certain degree of play in it. (As Derrida says,
it's like the play of a machine part, which won't work if it's either too
tight or too loose. It's not infinite play, as some say JD has said.) And so
the whole problem of agency (not just human--animal, unconscious,
institutional, ritual, cultural) is reintroduced, but with a difference. Put
another way, the post-structuralist gambit is to demonstrate that any
structure or "thing" that is presumed to be well-defined, autonomous, "real"
(as opposed to fake or false), etc., relies on something extrinsic to it for
its sense, effect, etc.

>Can someone name the main achievement of one author who has been dubbed
"post-structuralist"? It is much better to talk about one specific thing than
to go on and on about abstractions such as "post-structuralism."

Achievement? Well, I think that the popularization of the value of
"marginality" has something to do with post-structuralism. And, though I don't
give litcritters credit for it, our awareness of the way that gender, ability,
race, sexual orientation, etc. have been meaningfully, materially excluded
from consideration of "rights" discourse has something to do with
poststructuralism. Or were you thinking achievement like book titles?

Christian