post-structuralism
Beyond binary oppositions
Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions fixed meanings, stable identities, and objective truths.
Where structuralism sought underlying systems and patterns, post-structuralism emphasizes how meaning shifts with context, how language shapes rather than reflects reality, and how power operates through discourse.
Associated with Derrida, Foucault, and Barthes, it influenced literary criticism, philosophy, and social theory from the 1960s onward.
A post-structuralist reading might examine what the text suppresses rather than what it says.
Denial of certain foundations
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- contingencyUncertain possible event
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
questioning · destabilization · denaturalization · historicism · constructivism · metanarrative · grand narrative · incredulity
Connections between written works
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- textWritten or printed words
- death of the authorIntent doesn't govern interpretation
writerly · readerly · polysemy · metatextuality · palimpsest · bricolage · pastiche · rhetoric
Study of family descent
- archaeologyStudy of physical remnants
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
- normalizationAdjusting to a standard
panopticon · enunciation · archive · discontinuity · rupture · statement
Shifting away from self-focus
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
- phallogocentrismDerrida's term for masculine-linguistic dominance
Rejection of human-centered worldviews
- desireIntense wanting
- LacanFrench psychoanalytic theorist
- lackDeficiency or absence
- imaginaryExisting only in thought
fragmentation · agency · identity · difference · splitting · misrecognition
Dominant group's control
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- dominationSupreme authority held
- subjugationForcing into submission
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
Gramsci · ideology · marginalization · exclusion · oppression · subversion · agency · complicity
anti-foundationalism
Denial of certain foundations
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- contingencyUncertain possible event
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
skepticism · questioning · destabilization · denaturalization · historicism · constructivism · metanarrative · grand narrative · incredulity · legitimation
intertextuality
Connections between written works
death of the author · writerly · readerly · polysemy · metatextuality · palimpsest · bricolage · pastiche · rhetoric
genealogy
Study of family descent
- archaeologyStudy of physical remnants
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
normalization · panopticon · enunciation · archive · discontinuity · rupture · statement
decentering
Shifting away from self-focus
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
phallogocentrism · presence · absence · closure · margins · spacing
anti-humanism
Rejection of human-centered worldviews
imaginary · fragmentation · agency · identity · difference · splitting · misrecognition
hegemony
Dominant group's control
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- dominationSupreme authority held
- subjugationForcing into submission
sovereignty · Gramsci · ideology · marginalization · exclusion · oppression · subversion · agency · complicity · micropolitics
post-structuralismstructuralism
Analysis through underlying systems
formalism · New Criticism · scientific method · empiricism · philology
post-structuralismstructuralism
Analysis through underlying systems
modernism · classical philosophy · rationalism · scholasticism
post-structuralismpositivism
Philosophy demanding verifiable evidence
objectivism · foundationalism · essentialism · realism · scientism
structure, construct, instruct, destruction, infrastructure, structural, structuralism, superstructure, deconstruction