poststructuralist

Poststructuralism is a branch of philosophy and critical theory that emerged in late 1960s France, developing from structuralism. It challenges the idea that cultural meanings are fixed by underlying structures. Instead, poststructuralists argue that language and discourse produce meaning, and that interpretation is contingent, unstable, and shaped by context, power relations, and social practices. The approach emphasizes critique of universal claims about truth, subjectivity, and representation.

Prominent poststructuralists include Jacques Derrida, who formulated deconstruction to show that texts admit multiple, often competing readings and that trace and différance prevent final closure. Michel Foucault analyzed how knowledge and power navigate discourses to produce subjects and norms. Roland Barthes argued for the "death of the author," placing meaning in readers’ interpretations. Julia Kristeva introduced intertextuality and a social view of language. Jean-François Lyotard questioned grand narratives, while Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari offered a philosophy of multiplicities and difference. Together, they questioned essentialist notions of meaning, identity, and authority.

Poststructuralism influenced literary, cultural, and social theory, prompting new methods in analysis and critique. Critics accuse it of relativism, obscurity, or political apathy, and debate its coherence as a movement. Some scholars distinguish poststructuralism from postmodernism, while others treat them as overlapping. Regardless, it remains a foundational reference for approaches that foreground language, power, and contingency in interpretation.