ABSTRACT
The relationship between structuralism and post-structuralism has been widely misunderstood due to the way in which the ideas associated with both isms came into academic discourse. In this chapter key ideas and thinkers of structuralism – from de Saussure and Lévi-Strauss to Barthes and post-structuralism (Derrida, Foucault) – are discussed, analysed and overviewed. The theme of subjectivity is used to chart a course among these various thinkers, and beyond them to critiques of both structuralist and post-structuralist thinking by Manfred Frank and Anthony Giddens. The chapter then identifies some of the future directions of structuralist and post-structuralist theory in order to demonstrate its lasting prescience in various disciplines.
