ABSTRACT
Postmodern theorists, following their structuralist predecessors, have been critical of ‘realism’ in the theory of meaning. Many of them pursue, and elaborate upon, the structuralism of Saussure. In this chapter, I would like to offer a defence of an unfashionable realist approach to meaning. I will go on, in the latter part of the chapter, to explain how a number of postmodernist/poststructuralist theorists are anti-realist and I will describe what I believe is left out of their theories, by virtue of their antirealism. This chapter explores further my disagreement with Irigaray.
