ABSTRACT
POSTSTRUCTURALISM Poststructuralism refers to an inter-disciplinary movement popular from the late 1970s, which could be seen as a supplement to structuralism, and as an attempt to problematize and challenge many of its assumptions. As with the relationship between postmodernism and modernism, so too that between poststructuralism and structuralism is more complex than might at first appear. Poststructuralism does not lend itself to any clear-cut definition. Broadly speaking, however, poststructuralism sought to redress the universalizing tendencies of structuralism by introducing a certain specificity into discourse. Thus against the static and universal models of structuralism, poststructuralism introduced notions of time and difference. The bar that separates signified from signifier was seen by poststructuralists as less stable. Meaning, in other words, was never fixed, and always subject to differals and play. Likewise poststructuralism challenged the treatment of binary oppositions in structuralism, and sought to expose the fact that within such oppositions one term is invariably privileged over the other. Nonetheless poststructuralism should be understood not as a negation of structuralism, but as a problematization, intent on augmenting and improving the structuralist project.
