Poststructuralism Flashcards

Bakhtin, Eagleton, DERRIDA, Miller

1
Q

Bakhtin is interested in

A

the contextual character of
linguistic utterances.

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2
Q

Linguistic material is not enough to determine….

A

if a
word or sound is gloomy, ironical, threatening, etc.

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3
Q

Meaning depends on…

A

prior utterances in the dialogue,
the life of language as praxis.

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4
Q

Utterances are

A

ideologically saturated and resonate
with things said previously and anticipate replies.

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5
Q

Heteroglossia

A

refers to the presence of two or more expressed viewpoints in a text or other artistic work.

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6
Q

Poststructuralism is

A

an umbrella term for various
scholars working in the 1960s and 1970s who
challenged the Structuralist methodology, yet did
not offer an alternative methodology of their
own.

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7
Q

Poststructuralism was directed against…

A

the
Structuralist faith in binaries as a manifestation
of the production of meaning through difference.

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8
Q

Poststructuralism brings out

A

a critique of
logocentrism.

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9
Q

Logocentrism

A

has faith in the centrality of the logos
(“divine word”, “the transcendental signified”).

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10
Q

Logocentric philosophers provide for…

A

the expression
of the logos through a sensuous incarnation into
the physical/material world.

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11
Q

Logos

A

is a transcendental signified, the idea of the essence of meaning to which the sign points

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12
Q

For poststructuralists, the logic of logocentrism
operates….

A

through binaries

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13
Q

A binary is

A

a set of two related terms, in which the
first term (which is perceived to be closer to the
logos) is privileged over the second.

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14
Q

In any binary….

A

one term is given privilege over the other, one term has something that the other one lacks

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15
Q

Poststructuralism questions the integrity of
structuralist reasoning:

A

structuralism seemingly
extends a critique of logocentrism, yet reinforces
it through the rule of the binarist logic.

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16
Q

For Derrida - the notion of the centre

A

is paradoxical

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17
Q

poststructurialists are concerned with

A

conceptual paradoxes

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18
Q

Philosophical discourse is dominated b

A

phonocentrism

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19
Q

Phonocentrism derives from

A

a reasoning that
gives privilege to speech as having a direct and
natural relation with self-presence and meaning.

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20
Q

Philosophical statements seek

A

to be structured by
logic, reason, and truth, rather than the rhetoric
of the language in which they are expressed.

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21
Q

Logocentrism

A

refers to the orientation of philosophy
toward an order of meaning (thought, truth,
reason, logic, etc.) conceived as existing in itself,
as a foundation.

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22
Q

Pharmakon

A

means ‘a drug’, both medicine and poison

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23
Q

The transcendental signified

A

refers to the logos, the
idea of the essence of meaning to which the sign
points, underlies the Western philosophical
thought.

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24
Q

Human subjectivity is

A

paradoxical

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25
Arche-writing
a notion which refers to the conceptual principle of meaning-making that speech shares with writing and which therefore dismantles the entailing dichotomies of presence/ absence, natural/artificial, interior/exterior, etc.
26
Deconstruction
derives from “de” + “con” + “structure”, which is suggestive of simultaneous ‘destruction’ and ‘creation’.
27
Deconstruction is a method
of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language which emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression.
28
Structuralism believes
in the foundation of deep structures (e.g. morphology of the folktale, semiotic square) underlying the formation of meaning.
29
Deconstruction challenges
the idea of the ‘essence’, ‘centre’ and deep structure.
30
to be "para"
s to be on the boundary between inside and outside and thus to be part of both
31
Parasite
1. Any organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host; 2. A person who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
32
The host
1) shares the food with the parasite; 2) is the substance consumed by the parasite.
33
Miller observes that
A host is a guest, and a guest is a host
34
a deconstructive reading is
a rhetorical exercise that takes the text to its limits
35
A deconstructive reading is always
encrypted in all readings as a possibility.
36
this is what literary critics do ...
they take texts apart, make texts sacrificial objects. all poems are parasites that feed on other poems.
37
In learning the poem by heart we....
partake of the Other, expose ourselves to danger (i.e. spikes), but also deprive the poem of its singularity.
38
The productive tension between....
singularity and generality organises the structures of the literary system.
39
In Derridean terms, literature is...
an institution that questions its own institutionality
40
Derrida’s thinking about literature deconstructs....
the dichotomy literary/non-literary.
41
Différance
is both the positive state of being different, and the act of differing, producing differences
42
Sossourean idea -> signifier and the signified cannot be stabilized...
cannot be fixed. signifiers are always on the move.
43
In Derridean terms, meaning is
disseminated rather than transferred.
44
Dissemination
suggests an act of signification whereby meaning is spread around by way of unlocking the stable relation of signifier to signified.
45
The relationship between signified and signifier
is unhooked in the stream of signification whereby signifiers are constantly deferred to other signifiers.
46
Aporia
Greek for 'wayless'. a final impase, a paradox
47
Deconstructive analysis shows
how the text undermines its own rhetorical structure, dismantles, deconstructs itself, results in aporia.
48
Aporia invalidates...
ideas about any single, fixed, or 'correct' meaning
49
Aporia is not
a negative state that should call for a nostalgic longing for meaning or presence.
50
For Derrida aporia marks
the joyous affirmation of the play of the world and of the innocence of becoming
51
Aporia frees us
from being bound to any fixed truths or origins.
52
Deconstruction makes us aware of
the seductiveness of writing, its simultaneous desire for presence (i.e. meaning) and its failure to make it tenable.
53
Derrida does not seek to destroy traditional criticism, but seeks...
to show how texts deconstruct themselves and thus open themselves up to new interpretations.
54
Poststructuralism criticises the idea...
of the author as an individual person and an originating source of literary meaning.
55
Poststructuralism questions the idea of...
“human nature” as the represented subject and common frame of reference for literary depictions.
56
Poststructuralism emphasises ...
that language cannot point outside of itself.
57
Poststructuralism champions the idea...
that languages produce (rather than reflect) meaning.
58
Postructuralism brings...
difference and deferral into the foreground in order to disrupt any notion of stability or unity of meaning.
59
. Poststructuralism challenges...
the structuralist reliance on fundamental structures – a final, allembracing explanation is impossible because we cannot step out of the discourse in which we are implicated.
60
Poststructuralists show....
that what counts as the deep or central meaning of a text depends on where you stand.
61
Poststructuralists see the text...
as always unfinished, full of loopholes and contradictions. Reading is always potentially a misreading.
62
Structuralism sought facts about texts. For Poststructuralism.....
there are no facts, only interpretations.
63
Poststructuralism criticises structuralism for...
its dependence on the logic of binaries and seeks to expose its theoretical premises, but in effect is dependent on structuralist claims as the premise of its own theoretical agenda.