Post Structuralism

Question 1

Definition of post structuralism

Answer 1

‘Creating a history of different modes by which human beings are made subjects’

(Foucault, 1982)

Question 2

Context of post structuralism

Answer 2

Came in 1980’s in response to war waged by established powers and demands for Third World economic justice, women and environmental rights.”

Question 3

What is the Cartesian Anxiety?

Answer 3

‘Fear, given the demise of grounded knowledge’. May not be able to make moral judgements

Question 4

What does Derida say about language

Answer 4

Concerned with the binary nature of our language. Through deconstruction (reversing original order of binary pair) to show how the second term is central to the first. This means that people’s identities are socially constructed through inclusion / exclusion. (Power expresses through language)

Even Tocqueville emphasised the harmful nature of writing as it distorts what is actually meant in favour of the agressor

Question 5

What is post-structuralism an attempt to do?

Answer 5

To go beyond structure and challenge the condition of knowledge