What is Post Structuralism?

poststructuralism, movement in literary criticism and philosophy begun in France in

the late 1960s. Drawing upon the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, the anthropology
of Claude Lévi-Strauss, and the deconstructionist theories of Jacques Derrida, it held that
language is not a transparent medium that connects one directly with a “truth” or “reality”
outside it but rather a structure or code, whose parts derive their meaning from their contrast
with one another and not from any connection with an outside world. Writers associated with
the movement include Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, and Michel Foucault.

Post-Structuralist Criticism, Deconstructive criticism also explores patterns within

texts, but deconstructive criticism aims to demonstrate how conflicting forces within the text
undermine the stability of the text’s structure, revealing meaning as an array of undetermined
possibilities. Deconstructive criticism may also focus on binaries in a text, such as good/evil,
light/dark, male/female, poor/rich, linear/nonlinear, old/young, masculine/feminine, or
natural/artificial, to expose one aspect of the binary as privileged and the other as suppressed.
The discussion of deconstructionist criticism below will focus on the light/dark binary.
Jacques Derrida is the originator of deconstruction. As M.H. Abrams points out in A
Glossary of Literary Terms, however, Derrida did not intend for deconstruction to serve as a
method for writing literary criticism. Rather, Derrida viewed deconstruction as a technique for
exposing and subverting many assumptions of Western thought in a variety of texts (59).
Additionally, Paul de Man, Barbara Johnson, and J.H. Miller have all been instrumental in
the development of deconstructive readings of literary texts.
Deconstruction is a type of theory that arose from post-structuralism, which asserts that since
systems are always changing, it is impossible to describe a complete system, such as one that
insists on the association of darkness with evil and vice versa. As such, post-structuralists also
view subjects—subjects such as readers—as caught up in the forces that produce the very
structures they study as objects of knowledge. Discovering Truth with a capital T is, therefore,
an impossible task to carry out with deconstructive criticism.
For example, a deconstructionist critic would ask how and why more importance is placed on
light versus dark in a text, thereby questioning the truth of these associations within—and even
outside of—the literary text. For example, if a reader can see how a literary text intentionally
correlates light with goodness and darkness with evil, a reader might begin to question the truth
of these correlations. Similarly, a deconstructionist critic would point out how the construction
of these contrasting forces undermine their stability.
Consider Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?”
After initially reading the story, many readers associate darkness with the dangerous character,
Arnold, and light with the innocent victim, Connie. And yet some astute readers have noticed
the pale (light) skin that surrounds Arnold’s dark eyes. If Arnold represents evil, why are his
dark eyes surrounded with pale light? Additionally, Connie attempts to get a tan in the natural
sunlight, while Arnold puts on makeup to make himself appear tan. A meaningful difference
between light and dark in the text is undermined by Arnold’s ability to simply paint on the type
of tan that Connie strives to acquire. How can light represent goodness if a bad person can
simply make himself appear light—or tan—like Connie is? The deconstructionist critic
recognizes how the text plays around with the assumptions readers make based on the
connotations of the words and the images they create, enhancing the tension in the story, and
undermining the possibility of the text creating only one meaning. For example, Connie lives in
a suburb where everyone notices that Arnold doesn’t fit in, but no one confronts him. Connie’s
friends and neighbors silently consent to Arnold’s presence, leading to his eventual abduction
of Connie. Oates’s story invites us to consider that her story can be interpreted in multiple
ways.