Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 2022 M07 28 - 144 pages
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Poststructuralism challenges traditional ways of thinking about human beings and our relation to the world. Language, meaning, and culture are all reappraised, and with them assumptions about what it's possible for us to know. More interested in posing sharply focused questions than in reassuring with certainties, its theorists tend to clarify the options, while leaving them open to debate. At once sceptical towards inherited authority and positive about future possibilities, poststructuralism asks above all that we reflect on its findings. In this Very Short Introduction, Catherine Belsey traces the key arguments that have led poststructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture. In this new edition, such well-known figures as Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida are joined by less famous theorists, and examples are drawn from both high art and popular culture. Shakespeare features alongside advertising and Christmas cards, as well as Lewis Carroll, Marcel Duchamp, Toni Morrison, and the tantalizing lithographs of M. C. Escher. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
 

Contents

Difference and culture
23
The differed subject
43
Difference or truth?
64
Difference in the world
84
Dissent
104
Glossary
127
References
129
Further reading
133
Index
135
German Philosophy
138
Writing and Script
139
The Meaning of Life
140
Copyright

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About the author (2022)

Catherine Belsey was Fellow and Tutor at New Hall, Cambridge, from 1969 to 1975. She chaired the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University from 1988 to 2003. At the time of her death in February 2021, she was Professor Emeritus in English at Swansea University and Visiting Professor at the University of Derby.

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