ABSTRACT
BRIAN COATES The resistance to ‘transparent’ readings of literary texts generated by post-structuralist activity now reaches across most contexts in which English is taught and discussed. Yet the relieving absence of a univocally structured approach for reading, discussion, and appraisal, characteristic of these models of analysis, has also produced a deep anxiety in pedagogic method. For its own part, post-structuralist thought has countered the lack of ‘centre’ by showing a marked interest in its own production as discourse. As the written artefacts of philosophical and literary histories are subjected to the rigours of linguistic and ideological investigation, so too does the discourse of the scrutiny present fresh material for the project. Studies in the relation of structuralism to post-structuralism, the connection of feminism to semiotics, or Marxist theory to political and cultural praxis, figure as micro-systems restlessly searching for a stable environment, orphan disciplines seeking to rebuild a family circle.
