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Post-Structuralism
Postmodernism

P o s t-S t r u c t u r a l i s m /  \ POSTMODERNISM \

​POST-STRUCTURALISM ~under postmodernism’s broadest wings~ stands as eminent as it is nebulous: a singular school of thought?, or a diversity of schools? that come after (born from?, mere critique of?) cross-disciplinary Structuralism?; is it a set of principles &/or methodologies from diverse fields merged into a solidified system?; a movement itself? or a way of doing philosophy in the late 20th to 21st c.?  The many works & thinkers variously called post-structuralist cross historical & disciplinary boundaries & synthesize materials & methodologies from anthropology to linguistics, politics to poetics, psychoanalysis to philosophy proper, from metaphysics to ontology, epistemology to ethics & aesthetics.  The only seeming unity being their holistic eclectic-ness, discernment of the flux amidst structural rigidities, promotions of becoming, & emphases on rethinking the nature of knowledge & constitution of meaning, all reignited by fresh methodologies, kindled with interdisciplinary material, and blaze in new voices with new urgencies.  ​
Slide Show: 
a way into thinking post-structuralism & postmodernism is by thinking around the history & idea of marginalia,
the writings in texts around the margins of the text's text ...


POSTMODERNISM designates neither a period after modernity, nor its overturning; it is “re-writing modernity”--a primarily methodological & anti-historicist study that most actively seeks to uncover grand narratives’  biases.
  • “Grand narratives” are the powerful stories we call upon to create & structure meaning (often to rally people); as overarching organizational categories that may conjure national identity, portray capitalist political economy, invoke proletariat struggle or emancipation from marginalization, they are often captured in clichés & catch-phrases: ‘power to the people,’ ‘as American as apple pie,’ ‘live free or die,’ ‘we are all God’s creatures,’ ‘class struggle,’ etc.. 
For postmodernism, all knowledge has become narrative; knowledge is a structuring force or power, not a mere label, but affective creation & direction of meaning/reality.  Within this excess of narratives, narrativity itself, the rules & operation of this knowledge-cum-narrative system, & specific, especially strong grand narratives are what postmodernism targets to lay bare.
 
Postmodernism, then, is critique that constantly turns back to the canon (widely conceived); takes it up & works through it to see many alternate narratives therein.  It refuses rigid boundaries between disciplines or schools of thought.  It is therapeutic.  It seeks to lay bare what remains unsaid.

Notes ... On Key Thinkers & Texts:

Lyotard
Postmodern Condition
Lyotard
​On What is 'art'?
Lyotard ​Prefacing
​The Differend
Lyotard
​The Differend
overview to Ch.1
Lyotard
The Differend
Chs.2-3
Lyotard
​The Differend
​Chs.4-5
Lyotard
The Differend
​Chs.6-7
Deleuze Structuralism
Deleuze & Guattari Thousand Plateaus
Jean-Luc Nancy
​Listening
Jean-Luc Nancy
​Noli me Tangere
Jean-Luc Nancy
​Birth to Presence
Levinas
​Existence & Existents
Foucault
​on 'Las Meninas'
Adorno
​Fetish-Condition
Derrida
​of Grammatology

Additional Resources:

Bibliography
(Key Readings)
to become
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  • Home
  • Philosophy & the Arts
  • Post-Structuralism
  • Heidegger
  • Medieval
  • Existentialism
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • First Year Seminar - FYS
  • Miscellany
  • Garden Philosophy