poststructuralism

[pohst-struhk-cher-uh-liz-uhm]

noun

1. a variation of structuralism, often seen as a critique, emphasizing plurality of meaning and instability of concepts that structuralism uses to define society, language, etc.

poststructuralism

/ pəʊstˈstrʌktʃərəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. an approach to literature that, proceeding from the tenets of structuralism, maintains that, as words have no absolute meaning, any text is open to an unlimited range of interpretations

Other Word Forms

• poststructuralist adjective
• poststructural adjective

Example Sentences

Take “Cult-Nats Meet Freaky-Deke,” a visionary essay which appeared in The Voice in 1986 that called for a “popular poststructuralism — accessible writing bent on deconstructing the whole of Black culture.”

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The book is set in the 1980s; poststructuralism is all the rage.

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Kit: I remember one fight when we were walking back from a pub somewhere and we were talking about poststructuralism.

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By the same token, the guiding image of classic prose could not be further from the worldview of relativist academic ideologies such as postmodernism, poststructuralism, and literary Marxism.

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In the case of Corderoy, the pretentious realm of academia, where a professor warns him that he is not in grad school “purely for the pursuit of knowledge,” but must become “intimately familiar with poststructuralism, new historicism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics” if he wants to succeed.

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