THE CONVERSATION:POST STRUCTURALISMAn Attempt to Join

Maddie Blair & Sarah Arbogast

CONCEPTUAL MAPPING

Power through the grand narrative

Money Gender

Cast System

Marxism CommunismStructuralism

ModernityIndustrialization

Break from the grand narrative

Deconstruction Post Modernism

Consciousness of larger power structures.

Post Structuralism

Acknowledges history of power structures, but

transcends perception past

the meta narrtive

Ideas of the ideal utopian society.

Interpretation

“Poststructuralism folds the limit back on to the core of knowledge and on to our settled understanding of the truth and the good,” (Williams, 2005, p. 2).

Core of a structure

“Truth” or “Good”

Limits Deviations

For Poststructuralists, the limits are the core. They are not in opposition to the core, but they

are a version of pure difference (Williams, 2005).

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Michel Foucault

Jacques Derrida

Gilles Deleuze

Jean-François Lyotard

Julia Kristeva

Jacques Derrida

- The book nor the author exist as an absolute, independent identity

- We participate in, and transcend texts

- Can attribute Derrida to the one who introduced deconstruction of text (Williams, 2005)

- Deconstruction a way of interpreting “metaphysics” or theories of existence

WORKS TO NOTEOf Grammatology (1967)

Keywords of Deconstruction

Origin – the most pure point of the claim

Presence – the phenomena is the thought, the most pure point of truth

Trace – signs in language of their histories and futures

Différance – attempt to conjoin the deferring aspects of the written and the spoken

Play – looseness and openness in structures to a variety of interpretations

(Williams, 2005)

Michel Foucault

- New philosophy of history and previous thoughts- Looking at current structures with consideration to

their origins

- Hones in on themes of power and loosing the grips of power

- Determinism and freedom

- Uses grand narrative of sex and gender as point of access

WORKS TO NOTE:The Archeology of Knowledge (1969) Madness and Civilization (1961) Discipline and Punish (1975)

Power/Knowledge (1980)The History of Sexuality

Gilles Deleuze

- Emphasis on recognizing structuralism and be guided through post structuralism

- Structure should be about change rather than representation

- Relationship between identity and difference

- If X and Y are different, there has to exist fundamental reasons for why they are different

WORKS TO NOTE:“How Do We Recognize Structuralism” (1972)Difference and Repetition (1968)

Jean-François Lyotard

- Emphasis on Aesthetics and Art

- Work is also in opposition to generalities or metanarratives

- Structures are associated with emotions

- Deconstruction = highly creative and transforming process

WORKS TO NOTEThe Differend (1988)

Julia Kristeva

- Work is influential in critical analysis, cultural theory, and feminism

- Psychoanalytic approach to post structuralism

- Subject is always changing or in a state of crisis

- Feminist revolution in language

- Poetic revolution

ACTIVITYRole Play & Reflect

Critiques

“…it is willfully and irretrievable difficult”

“It takes on positions that are marginal, inconsistent and impossible to maintain” (Williams, 2005, p.1)

Do you agree?

Response to Critique

- Defined as negative in terms of power - Takes away options- Leaves confusion and dogmatism

BUT REALLY…- Transformation - Resistance to ignorance- Liberating

Moving ForwardJudith Butler

- Gender Trouble (1990) – Theorizes Gender as Performative

- Bodies of Gender (1993) – Recognizes misunderstanding of Performing gender…it is repetition of following the norms and constraints of gender

- Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997) – analyzes problems with hate speech and censorship

- Undoing Gender (2004) - undoing normal conceptions of a gendered life

- Giving an Account of Oneself (2005) – Theorizing the subject in relation to society

Performance

- We perform gender, family, athleticism etc.

- Move from structure to process (Turner, 1987)

- Meaning in the process of everyday behavior (Schechner, 1977)