lecture 12
1)what is Poststructuralism ?
a broad historical description of intellectual developments in continental philosophy and critical theory
2)when and where does it come from ?
Twentieth-century French philosophy
3)what does the prefix "post’ mean ?
primarily that it is critical of structuralism
4)Structuralism tried to deal with meaning as what ?
complex structures that are culturally independent
5) what does Post-structuralism see culture and history as ?
integral to meaning
6) what was Poststructuralism a ‘rebellion against ?
structuralism
7) what was a critical and comprehensive response to the basic assumptions of structuralism ?
Poststructuralism
8)what does Poststructuralism study?
the underlying structures inherent in cultural products (such as texts)
9) what does it use for linguistics, psychology, and anthropology ?
analytical concepts
10) what do poststructuralist study to understand a text?
1)The text itself
2)the systems of knowledge which interacted and came into play to produce the text
11) what kind of study is Post-structuralism?
a study of how knowledge is produced, an analysis of the social, cultural and historical systems that interact with each other to produce a specific cultural product, like a text of literature,
12) how does Poststructuralism see the concept of “self” ?
fictional construct, an illusion
13) what is the concept of “self” ?
"self" a singular and coherent entity
14) what is “self “ to Poststructuralism?
a mass of conflicting tensions + Knowledge claims (e.g. gender, class, profession, etc.)
15) what must the reader do to properly study a text ?
the reader must understand how the work is related to his own personal concept of self and how the various concepts of self that form in the text come about and interact
16)what is Self-perception in poststructuralism ?
Poststructuralism requires a critical attitude to one's assumptions, limitations and general knowledge claims (gender, race, class, etc)
17)for Poststructuralism what is secondary to the meaning that the reader can generate from the text ?
Authorial intentions
18) what is Authorial intentions ?
the meaning that the author intends to “transmit” in a piece if literature
19) who rejects the idea of a literary text having one purpose, one meaning or one singular existence ?
Poststructuralism
20)who utilizes a variety of perspectives to create a multifaceted (or conflicting) interpretation of a text?
Poststructuralism
21) who analyzes how the meanings of a text shift in relation to certain variables ?
Poststructuralism
22)what are the Poststructuralist Concepts ?
1)Destabilized Meaning
2)Deconstruction
23) who does Poststructuralism displace ?
the writer/author
24) who does it make the primary subject of inquiry ?
the reader
25) what do they call this displacement?
the "destabilizing" or "decentering" of the author
26) what does it disregard ?
the essentialist reading of the content that look for superficial readings or story lines
27) what other sources of meaning are examined?
readers, cultural norms, other literature, etc.)
Such alternative sources promise no consistency, but might provide valuable clues and shed light on unusual corners of the text
28)what does Poststructuralism reject?
that there is a consistent structure to texts, specifically the theory of binary opposition
29)what made the theory of binary opposition famous?
that structuralism
30) what do Post-structuralists advocate ?
deconstruction
Meanings of texts and concepts constantly shift in relation to many variables. The same text means different things from one era to another, from one person to another
31) what is the only way to properly understand these meanings ?
deconstruct the assumptions and knowledge systems which produce the illusion of singular meaning