poststructuralism
Anti-foundationalist literary theory
Poststructuralism is a philosophical and critical approach that questions fixed meanings, stable identities, and objective truths.
Emerging in the 1960s as a response to structuralism, it holds that language and meaning are inherently unstable—texts contain contradictions and gaps that undermine any single interpretation.
Associated with thinkers like Derrida, Foucault, and Barthes, poststructuralism influenced literary criticism, philosophy, and cultural studies: Her poststructuralist reading revealed tensions the author never intended.
Meaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
signification · meaning · text · representation · polysemy · linguistics · sign · referent
Criticism emphasizing audience interpretation
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- metatextualityWork referencing its own form
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
citation · reading · hermeneutics · literary theory · close reading · narrative · rhetoric · allegory
Prominent French family name
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- panopticonCentral-view prison structure
genealogy · normalization · subjugation · surveillance · microphysics · discipline · domination · ideology
Intent doesn't govern interpretation
- identityWho someone is
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- constructionProcess of building something
- ButlerName from domestic service
multiplicity · otherness · difference · Lacan · desire · lack · unconscious
Grammatology's French author
- decenteringShifting away from self-focus
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
- presenceState of being somewhere
absence · subversion · destabilize · indeterminacy · erasure · hierarchy
All-encompassing explanatory framework
- grand narrativeTotalizing explanatory framework
- totalizingMaking into unified whole
- foundationalismKnowledge rests on basics
- essentialismDoctrine of fixed natures
universalism · teleology · origin · closure · legitimation · skepticism · anti-foundationalism · contingency
signifier
Meaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- intertextualityConnections between written works
semiotics · signification · meaning · text · representation · polysemy · linguistics · sign · referent · difference
reader-response
Criticism emphasizing audience interpretation
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- metatextualityWork referencing its own form
pastiche · citation · reading · hermeneutics · literary theory · close reading · narrative · rhetoric · allegory
Foucault
Prominent French family name
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
panopticon · genealogy · normalization · subjugation · surveillance · microphysics · discipline · domination · ideology · agency
death of the author
Intent doesn't govern interpretation
- identityWho someone is
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- constructionProcess of building something
Butler · multiplicity · otherness · difference · Lacan · desire · lack · unconscious
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
- decenteringShifting away from self-focus
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
- disseminationWide distribution of information
presence · absence · subversion · destabilize · indeterminacy · erasure · hierarchy
metanarrative
All-encompassing explanatory framework
- grand narrativeTotalizing explanatory framework
- totalizingMaking into unified whole
- foundationalismKnowledge rests on basics
essentialism · universalism · teleology · origin · closure · legitimation · skepticism · anti-foundationalism · contingency · historicism
poststructuralismessentialism
Doctrine of fixed natures
foundationalism · structuralism · formalism · New Criticism · Platonism
poststructuralismpositivism
Philosophy demanding verifiable evidence
objectivism · empiricism · realism · rationalism · foundationalism
structure, construct, instruct, destruction, infrastructure, structured, reconstruct, structural, structures