Poststructuralism Criticism PDF

Poststructuralism Course Reader pp. 85-98  Introduction ∙ At some point in the late 1960s, structuralism gave birth to ‘poststructuralism’. ∙ There are various poststructuralist positions. ∙ The poststructuralism of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004),...

Poststructuralism Course Reader pp. 85-98  Introduction ∙ At some point in the late 1960s, structuralism gave birth to ‘poststructuralism’. ∙ There are various poststructuralist positions. ∙ The poststructuralism of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), or deconstruction, as it is often called, was the first version of poststructuralism to reach the United States ∙ Poststructuralism is unthinkable without structuralism. ∙ Poststructuralism tries to deflate the scientific pretensions of structuralism. Some Poststructuralist Theories/ Versions of Poststructuralism DECONSTRUCTION/ Poststructuralism Postcolonialism African-American Studies New Historicism Gender Studies Feminism  Poststructuralist Tendencies/ Major Assumptions Truth Language ❑ Rather than viewing language as reflecting the ‘real ❑ They threw out the idea that world,’ language creates everything we can know about anything is absolute, especially ‘reality.’ any absolute truth, and instead focus on how everything is ❑ Rather than being speakers of language, we are products of language. Language speaks us. constructed and provisional. Truth is always relative, rather Elaboration:This concept challenges traditional notions than absolute. of language as a neutral tool that individuals use to express their thoughts. Instead, poststructuralists ❑ Because of the idea of argue that language is a dynamic and powerful force relativism, there can be no such that shapes our understanding of the world and, in a thing as a ‘total’ theory or sense, speaks through us. metatheory, one which explains ❑ No such thing as definitive meaning. There is only every aspect of some event or ambiguity, fluid meaning, and multiplicity of meaning, field. especially in a literary text. What does poststructuralism share with structuralism? ∙ Generally speaking, poststructuralism continues structuralism’s anti-humanist perspective ∙ it closely follows structuralism in its belief that language is the key to our understanding of ourselves and the world.  THE POSTRUCTURALIST REVOLUTION Poststructuralism simultaneously undermines structuralism by questioning /dismantling/ ‘deconstructing’ some of its major assumptions and the methods that derive from those assumptions.  1. Language for Structuralists applied the ideas of an no natural link between a word and that underlying structure and the which it refers to. principle of differentially. A subject’s utterances belong language is not an instrument for to the realm of parole, which is reflecting a pre-existent reality ( it governed by langue, the true has no referent in the outside world) object of structuralist analysis. or for expressing a human intention. 1. Language for Poststructuralists a. The Illusion of Presence Presence: the confidence we have in language, the certainty that we know what we know, that we are in direct, touch with ourselves and can then put into words what we know and feel. Poststructuralists: Poststructuralists question the philosophy of presence: this confidence we feel in language. Everything is in flux. For them, our confidence in language is misplaced as language can be extremely slippery 1. Language for Poststructuralists b. In defense of Absence the meaning we see in words is the product of difference, meaning is always contaminated. language never offers us direct contact with reality; it is not a transparent medium, a window on the world. On the contrary, it always inserts itself between us and the world – like a smudgy screen or a distorting lens. The independent ‘play’ of language that no one can stop is the origin of a surplus meaning that plays havoc with whatever meaning we intended. Instead of a stable, present meaning, language involves a continual play of differences and deferrals. Absence, in this sense, is not a lack but an integral part of the meaning-making process. They argue that meaning is not stable, self-contained, or immediately present but involves a complex interplay of differences, deferrals, and contextual contingencies. Absence, far from being a lack, is an essential and productive aspect of the dynamic nature of language and knowledge. 2. Nature OF SIGNIFICATION for Structuralists The sign Saussure had recognized that signifier and signified are two separate systems, The The but he did not see how signified signifier unstable units of meaning can be when the systems come together. 2. Nature of Signification for Poststructuralists discovered the essentially unstable nature of signification. The sign is not so much a unit with two sides as a momentary ‘fix’ between two moving layers. Not only do we find for every signifier several signifieds For example: (a ‘crib’ signifies a manger, a child’s bed, a hut, a job), A bank signifies a river bank, a pile, a financial institution but each of the signifieds becomes yet another signifier which can be traced in the dictionary with its own array of signifieds: For example: in the sentence “ I filled the glass with milk”, the spoken or written word glass is a signifier; its signified is the concept of a container that can be filled. But in the sentence “ The container was filled with milk,” the spoken or written word container, a signified in the previous sentence, is now a signifier, its signified being the concept of an object that can be filled.  3. BINARY OPPOSITIONS FOR STRUCTURALISTS ∙ Dig out binary oppositions in a text to highlight its meaning. ∙ General sets of oppositional terms include good vs evil, truth vs falsehood, masculinity vs femininity, rationality vs irrationality, thought vs feeling, mind vs matter, nature vs culture, purity vs impurity, and so on and so forth. ∙ These oppositions are implicit or almost invisible – they may be hidden in a text’s metaphors, for instance – or else only one of the terms involved is explicitly mentioned. ∙ That explicit mention, then, evokes the other, absent term.  3. BINARY OPPOSITIONS FOR POSTSTRUCTURALISTS ∙ Dig out binary oppositions to dismantle them. Before Poststructuralists: ∙ texts set up one or more centres of meaning ( transcendental signified) in order to give themselves stability and stop the potentially infinite flow of meaning that all texts generate. Poststructuralists’ position: ∙ This Western tendency for desiring a center Derrida names logocentrism: the belief that there is an ultimate reality or center of truth ( a transcendental signified )that can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and actions.  3. BINARY OPPOSITIONS FOR POSTSTRUCTURALISTS ( cont.) Poststructuralists’ argument: ∙ If there is a centre, there is also that which does not belong to it, that which is marginal. ∙ undertake to bring to light the tension between the central and the marginal in a text ∙ Such hierarchies between centre and margin (or periphery) take the form of binary oppositions  3. BINARY OPPOSITIONS FOR POSTSTRUCTURALISTS (cont.) ∙ Because those oppositions are usually intimately tied up with negative stereotyping, repression, discrimination, social injustice, and other undesirable practices and might even be said actively to perpetuate them, poststructuralism sets out to deconstruct them, arguing that binary oppositions are a good deal less oppositional than they would seem to be. ∙ An Example: the existence of darkness (that is, our awareness of non-light) creates the concept of light. Paradoxically, the inferior term in this oppositional set turns out to be a condition for the opposition as such and is therefore as important as the so-called privileged one. The two terms in any oppositional set are defined by each other: light by darkness, truth by falsehood, purity by contamination, the rational by the irrational, the same by the other, nature by culture. Here, too, the attribution of meaning is made possible by difference ∙ To analyze and dismantle the binary opposites means to ‘decentre’ the privileged term, to show that both terms only exist because of difference and that they are not in themselves wholly neutral.  Examples to explain how binary oppositions are deconstructed Traditional Thought 1. Binary Opposition: Masculine/Feminine Masculine / Feminine In traditional thought, "masculine" is often associated with qualities such as strength, strength nurturing, rationality, and assertiveness, while "feminine" is assertivenes s emotionality linked to qualities like nurturing, emotionality, and passivity. rationality passivity 2.Deconstructive Analysis: Deconstructive analysis Deconstructionists would question the ▪ Ask why certain traits or behaviors are attributed assumed stability and universality of these to one gender and not categories. They also argue that the meanings of the other. "masculine" and "feminine" are not fixed but are ▪ Highlight instances dependent on each other for their definition. where individuals do not conform to these stereotypes. ▪ Thus, Deconstruct the binary Examples to explain how binary oppositions are deconstructed Traditional Thought 1. Binary Opposition: Inside/Outside Inside / Outside In traditional thought, "inside" is often associated absence presence with presence, safety, and inclusion, while , "outside" is associated with absence, danger, and safety danger exclusion. exclusio inclusion n 2.Deconstructive Analysis: Deconstructive analysis Deconstructionists would question the stability of ▪ Ask why certain traits or these categories and challenging their assumed behaviors are attributed to one concept and not meanings. the other. They also argue that the meanings of "inside" and ▪ Highlight instances where the concepts "outside" are not fixed but are dependent on each would have a different other for their definition. connotations/ implications ▪ Thus, Deconstruct the  Roland Barthes One of the key figures of the French theorists of the 1960s and 1970s. Language is not a natural, transparent medium through which the reader grasps a solid and unified ‘truth’ or ‘reality’. The virtuous writer recognizes the artifice of all writing and proceeds to make play with it. All discourses, including critical interpretations, are equally fictive; none stand apart in the place of Truth. Barthes’ poststructuralist period is best represented by his short essay ‘The Death of the Author’ (1968). ‘The Death of the Author’ (1968). Barthes rejects the traditional view that the author is the origin of the text, the source of its meaning, and the only authority for interpretation. Unlike New Criticism, the text as a self-contained unity has subterranean connections with its author. But the author is not a singular, authoritative figure. The author is actually reduced to a location (a crossroad), where language crosses and recrosses. The author is not the originator of meaning but a point where various linguistic and cultural threads converge. What is new in Barthes is the idea that readers are free to open and close the text’s signifying process without respect for the signified. Readers are free to connect the text with systems of meaning and ignore the author’s ‘intention’.