poststructuralist
Anti-foundationalist literary theorist
A poststructuralist questions fixed meanings and stable categories, particularly in language, identity, and power.
The term emerged from thinkers who pushed beyond structuralism's systematic frameworks, arguing that meaning is always shifting and context-dependent.
As a noun, it names someone working in this tradition: Derrida was the most influential poststructuralist.
As an adjective: a poststructuralist reading of the novel.
Meaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
- intertextualityConnections between written works
- polysemyWord having related meanings
hermeneutics · reading · inscription · interpretation · authorship · slippage · absence · presence
Grammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- phallogocentrismDerrida's term for masculine-linguistic dominance
- binarismDivision into two categories
- traceMinute remnant or pursue
dissemination · Baudrillard · Butler · Lacan · intertextuality · metanarrative · rhizome · deterritorialization
Shifting away from self-focus
- identityWho someone is
- agencyPower to act
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- multiplicityState of being many
otherness · embodiment · positionality · hybridity · liminality · becoming · nomadic · contingency
Representations supplanting the genuine
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
- bricolageConstruction from available materials
representation · ideology · demystification · questioning · denaturalization · destabilization · antiauthoritarian · relativism
Trained self-control or specialty
- microphysicsPhysics at atomic scale
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- transgressionViolation of law or code
subversion · surveillance · domination · subjection · regulation · apparatus · genealogy · archaeology
signifier
Meaning-bearing form
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
- intertextualityConnections between written works
polysemy · hermeneutics · reading · inscription · interpretation · authorship · slippage · absence · presence · meaning
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- phallogocentrismDerrida's term for masculine-linguistic dominance
- binarismDivision into two categories
trace · dissemination · Baudrillard · Butler · Lacan · intertextuality · metanarrative · rhizome · deterritorialization
decentering
Shifting away from self-focus
- identityWho someone is
- agencyPower to act
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
multiplicity · otherness · embodiment · positionality · hybridity · liminality · becoming · nomadic · contingency
hyperreality
Representations supplanting the genuine
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
bricolage · representation · ideology · demystification · questioning · denaturalization · destabilization · antiauthoritarian · relativism · contingency
discipline
Trained self-control or specialty
- microphysicsPhysics at atomic scale
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
transgression · subversion · surveillance · domination · subjection · regulation · apparatus · genealogy · archaeology · discontinuity
poststructuraliststructuralist
Pattern-and-system theorist
formalist · essentialist · positivist · objectivist · empiricist
poststructuralistobjectivist
Rational egoism adherent
positivist · absolutist · universalist · traditionalist · dogmatist