Coverage: Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Period | Late 1960s-1980s (emerged from structuralism) |
| Relation to Structuralism | NOT rejection but radicalization Uses structuralist insights but questions assumptions Shows instability of structures |
| Key Figures | Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes (later), Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva |
| Context | May 1968 Paris uprisings, political radicalism Questioning all established systems |
| MCQ Alert | Post-Structuralism (late 1960s-80s) - questions stability of structures, meaning |
| Structuralism | Post-Structuralism |
|---|---|
| Stable structures determine meaning | Structures unstable, undermined from within |
| Meaning = determined by system | Meaning = deferred, undecidable, plural |
| Binary oppositions structure meaning | Binaries hierarchical, deconstructible |
| Signifier → Signified (clear link) | Signifier → Signifier (endless chain, no fixed signified) |
| Scientific objectivity possible | All interpretation contingent, perspectival |
| Seeks universal structures | Questions universality; emphasizes difference |
"Father of Deconstruction"
| Work | Date | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Of Grammatology | 1967 | Critique of phonocentrism; writing vs. speech |
| Writing and Difference | 1967 | Essays on structuralism, phenomenology |
| Structure, Sign, and Play | 1966 | Famous lecture challenging structuralism |
| MCQ Key | Derrida's major works: Of Grammatology (1967), Writing and Difference (1967) |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Différance (with 'a') | Derrida's neologism combining "difference" + "deferral" Meaning: • Meaning = produced by DIFFERENCE (like Saussure) • BUT also DEFERRED (never fully present) • Signifier → signifier (endless chain) • NO final signified; meaning always "to come" Spelling 'a': Silent in French - shows gap between speech/writing Différance = condition of meaning (not a concept or word) |
| Logocentrism | Western philosophy privileges LOGOS (speech, presence, reason) Belief in: • Direct access to meaning • Presence over absence • Speech over writing • Origin, center, foundation Derrida: This is illusion; no pure presence or origin |
| Binary Oppositions | Western thought structured by hierarchical binaries: Speech/Writing, Presence/Absence, Nature/Culture, etc. Structure: First term privileged, second term subordinated Deconstruction: 1. Reverse hierarchy (show second term underlies first) 2. Displace opposition (show interdependence) Example: Writing NOT derivative of speech; speech already "writing" (trace, absence) |
| Trace | Every sign contains trace of what it differs from Meaning = never self-present; always refers elsewhere "A" defined by not being "B," "C," etc. Presence always haunted by absence |
| Supplement | What seems added/secondary actually essential Example: Writing = "supplement" to speech, but speech needs writing's logic Supplement both adds to and completes (paradox) |
| Key Terms | Différance (difference + deferral) + Logocentrism + Trace + Supplement |
| Aspect | Explanation |
|---|---|
| NOT a Method | NOT technique you apply Texts deconstruct themselves - critic reveals this "Deconstruction is not a method and cannot be transformed into one" |
| Close Reading | Careful attention to text's language Find moments where text contradicts itself Show how binary oppositions undermine themselves |
| Aporia | "Impasse, puzzle" - moment where text's logic breaks down Contradiction text cannot resolve Point where meaning becomes undecidable Deconstruction locates these aporias |
| Undecidability | Meaning NOT determinate; multiple readings coexist NOT relativism ("anything goes") Specific textual undecidability - text supports conflicting readings |
| Double Reading | 1. First reading: Dominant interpretation 2. Second reading: Show how text undermines this Both readings necessary; neither final |
| Famous Claim | "There is nothing outside the text" (Il n'y a pas de hors-texte) - everything is textual, intertextual |
| Traditional View (Logocentrism) | Derrida's Reversal |
|---|---|
| Speech = primary, natural | Speech already contains "writing" (difference, absence) |
| Writing = derivative copy | Writing exposes truth of all language - trace, deferral |
| Speech = presence (speaker present) | Speech also depends on absence (signs refer elsewhere) |
| Writing = fall from presence | There never was pure presence to fall from |
| Key Point | Derrida reverses traditional hierarchy, then shows interdependence |
| Achievement | Critique | |
|---|---|---|
| Questioned Foundations | Challenged all Western metaphysics | Too negative; doesn't build anything |
| Close Reading | Rigorous attention to textual detail | Ignores history, politics, ethics |
| Opened Texts | Showed complexity, undecidability | Relativistic; undermines meaning |
| Political Edge | Destabilized authority, hierarchy | Politically ambiguous; co-optable |
| Influence | Massive impact on humanities (1970s-90s); Yale School, de Man |
| Concept | Application to Literature |
|---|---|
| Unconscious | Most mental life = unconscious Repressed desires, fears shape behavior Literature: Expresses unconscious desires symbolically |
| Id, Ego, Superego | Id: Unconscious desires (pleasure principle) Ego: Conscious self (reality principle) Superego: Internalized social norms (conscience) Literature: Characters embody these conflicts |
| Oedipus Complex | Child's desire for opposite-sex parent, rivalry with same-sex parent Central to human development Literature: Oedipal themes ubiquitous (Hamlet) |
| Dream-Work | Dreams = disguised wish-fulfillment Mechanisms: Condensation, displacement, symbolization Literature: Works like dreams - symbolic, condensed Critic = analyst decoding symbols |
| Return of Repressed | What's repressed returns in disguised form Literature: Unconscious content emerges symbolically |
| Key Text | The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) - dream-work model for art |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Linguistic Turn | "The unconscious is structured like a language" Combined Freud + Saussure Unconscious = linguistic system, not biological drives |
| Mirror Stage | Child (6-18 months) sees self in mirror Identifies with image - forms ego BUT: Image = alienated (outside self) Ego = imaginary construct, split from self |
| Three Orders | 1. Imaginary: Pre-linguistic; mirror stage; unity (illusory) 2. Symbolic: Language; law; social order - Entry into language = entry into Symbolic - "Name-of-the-Father" = symbolic law 3. Real: What resists symbolization; traumatic; cannot be represented |
| Desire | Desire = lack (manque) Subject = split, lacking Desire never satisfied; always displaced Objet petit a: Object-cause of desire (unattainable) |
| Metaphor & Metonymy | Condensation = metaphor Displacement = metonymy Unconscious operates through these (like Jakobson) |
| Famous Phrase | "The unconscious is structured like a language" - Lacan |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Base & Superstructure | Base (economic): Mode of production, economic relations Superstructure: Culture, ideology, law, art, literature Traditional Marxism: Base determines superstructure Later Marxism: More complex interaction |
| Ideology | System of beliefs reflecting class interests Ruling class ideas = dominant ideology Literature transmits ideology (often unconsciously) Critique: Expose ideology in texts |
| Class Struggle | History = history of class struggles Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat Literature reflects/mediates class conflict |
| Alienation | Capitalism alienates workers from: • Products of labor • Labor process • Human essence • Other people Literature can express or critique alienation |
| Work/Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983) | Accessible introduction to theory Marxist perspective on literary criticism Critiques formalism, liberal humanism Shows literature = ideological construct |
| Ideology of Aesthetic | Idea of "autonomous art" = bourgeois ideology "Literature" = historically constructed category Canon formation = political process |
| Position | Literature should serve revolutionary politics Against "art for art's sake" Criticism = political intervention |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| The Political Unconscious (1981) | "Always historicize!" (opening imperative) All texts = symbolic acts responding to historical contradictions Three horizons of interpretation: 1. Political (text as symbolic act) 2. Social (class discourse) 3. Historical (mode of production) |
| Postmodernism | Postmodernism = cultural logic of late capitalism Characteristics: pastiche, depthlessness, waning of affect Linked to economic base (global capitalism) |
| Period | Focus |
|---|---|
| First Wave (1960s-70s) | "Images of Women" • Critique sexist representations • Expose patriarchal ideology • Recover lost women writers Key: Kate Millett, Elaine Showalter |
| Second Wave (1970s-80s) | "Gynocriticism" • Study women's writing tradition • Female experience, voice • Women's literary history Key: Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Hélène Cixous |
| Third Wave (1980s-90s+) | Gender Theory • Gender = constructed, not essential • Intersectionality (race, class, sexuality) • Queer theory Key: Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick |
| Work | Key Concept |
|---|---|
| The Second Sex (1949) | "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" Gender = social construction, NOT biological essence Woman = "Other" in patriarchal culture Man = subject, norm; Woman = object, deviation Foundational text for feminist theory |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Gynocriticism | "The study of women as writers" Focus on women's literary tradition NOT just feminist readings of male texts Women's writing = distinct tradition with own history Three phases of women's writing: 1. Feminine (1840-80): Imitation of dominant 2. Feminist (1880-1920): Protest, advocacy 3. Female (1920+): Self-discovery, authentic voice |
| A Literature of Their Own (1977) | History of British women novelists Established women's literary tradition From Brontës to present |
| Work | Key Concept |
|---|---|
| The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) | 19th-century women writers' "anxiety of authorship" • Male tradition = "anxiety of influence" (Harold Bloom) • Women = "anxiety of authorship" (can I write at all?) Madwoman figure: Repressed female rage • Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre) = Jane's double • Gothic doubles express forbidden anger Women writers subvert patriarchal forms |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Écriture Féminine | "Feminine writing" Women should write the body Fluid, multiple, non-linear style Resist phallogocentric (male-centered) language "Write yourself. Your body must be heard" "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975): Manifesto |
| Binary Oppositions | Western thought = hierarchical binaries (male/female) Male term always privileged Women must disrupt these binaries Write differently, from female jouissance (pleasure) |
| Work/Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Gender Trouble (1990) | "Gender is performative" Gender = NOT essence but PERFORMANCE Repeated acts create illusion of gender identity NO natural/biological gender beneath performance "Gender is the repeated stylization of the body" Drag: Exposes performativity of all gender |
| Sex vs. Gender | Traditional: Sex = biological; Gender = cultural Butler: SEX also culturally constructed "Sex" = regulatory ideal materialized through repetition Body itself shaped by cultural norms |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Colonialism & Imperialism | Study literature's role in colonial domination and resistance How literature justified/challenged empire Representation of colonized peoples |
| Orientalism | Western construction of "East" as exotic, inferior Other Said: Orientalism = discourse supporting imperialism |
| Subaltern | Marginalized, silenced groups Can the subaltern speak? (Spivak) |
| Hybridity | Cultural mixing, in-between identities Postcolonial subjects = hybrid (Bhabha) |
| Work | Key Concept |
|---|---|
| Orientalism (1978) | "Orientalism = Western discourse constructing 'the Orient'" Orient = Western invention • Not real place but discursive construct • Exotic, backward, despotic, sensual • Opposite of rational, progressive West Purpose: Justify colonial domination Knowledge = power (Foucault influence) Orientalist scholarship = complicit with imperialism Foundational text of postcolonial studies |
| Work/Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988) | Subaltern: Marginalized, oppressed groups Argument: Subaltern CANNOT speak within dominant discourse Western intellectuals can't "represent" subaltern When subaltern "speaks," already mediated by power Example: Sati (widow burning) - neither British nor Indian elite represents widow's voice Critiques both imperialism AND native patriarchy |
| Strategic Essentialism | Temporarily adopt essentialist identity for political purposes Though identity = constructed, tactical unity useful Pragmatic, not theoretical position |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Hybridity | Postcolonial identity = HYBRID (mixed, in-between) NOT pure native OR pure Western Third space - neither colonizer nor colonized Productive: Site of creativity, resistance |
| Mimicry | "Almost the same, but not quite" Colonized mimic colonizer (language, manners) BUT: Mimicry = menace Exposes instability of colonial authority "Colonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other" |
| Ambivalence | Colonial discourse = ambivalent (contradictory) Colonizer both fears and desires colonized Stereotype = anxious repetition (not stable) |
| The Location of Culture (1994) | Major work on hybridity, mimicry, "third space" |
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Post-structuralism period | Late 1960s-1980s (emerged from structuralism) |
| Derrida major works | Of Grammatology (1967), Writing and Difference (1967) |
| Différance | Derrida's neologism - difference + deferral; meaning deferred, never fully present |
| Logocentrism | Derrida - Western philosophy privileges speech, presence, logos over writing, absence |
| Aporia | Impasse where text's logic breaks down; undecidable moment |
| Freud's dream-work | Condensation, displacement, symbolization - literature works like dreams |
| Lacan's mirror stage | Child identifies with mirror image (6-18 months); forms ego (alienated) |
| "Unconscious structured like language" | Lacan - combined Freud + Saussure |
| Lacan's three orders | Imaginary, Symbolic, Real |
| Marxist base/superstructure | Base = economic; Superstructure = culture/ideology (base determines super) |
| "Always historicize!" | Jameson - opening imperative of The Political Unconscious (1981) |
| Beauvoir's famous line | "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" - The Second Sex (1949) |
| Gynocriticism | Elaine Showalter - study of women as writers (not just feminist readings) |
| The Madwoman in the Attic | Gilbert & Gubar (1979) - women's "anxiety of authorship" |
| Écriture Féminine | Hélène Cixous - "feminine writing"; write the body |
| "Gender is performative" | Judith Butler - Gender Trouble (1990) |
| Orientalism | Edward Said (1978) - Western discourse constructing "Orient" as Other |
| "Can the Subaltern Speak?" | Gayatri Spivak (1988) - subaltern cannot speak within dominant discourse |
| Hybridity & Mimicry | Homi Bhabha - postcolonial identity hybrid; mimicry = "almost same, but not quite" |