Poststucturalist

From MarxWiki

In the 1960's, the structuralist movement, based in France, attempted to synthesise the ideas of Marx, Freud and Saussure. For the structuralist the individual is shaped by sociological, psychological and linguistic structures over which he/she has no control, but which could be uncovered by using their methods of investigation. The attraction of structuralism is that it proposes a scientific, empirical method for analyzing human social existence.

The French philopopher and critic Michel Foucault is attributed for kick-starting the post-structuralist movement. He agreed that language and society were shaped by rule governed systems, but he disagreed with the structuralists on two counts. He did not think that there were definite underlying structures that could explain the human condition. Also he thought that it was impossible to step outside of discourse and survey the situation objectively.

Within poststructuralism, there are many conflicting theories, but their point of similarity is that they all start by critiquing structuralism. Other writers include Derrida, the founder of deconstructionism, the later works of Barthes, and some would also say Jean Baudrillard.