Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies
CHAPTER
26
cultural Studies
Literaryand cultural studies gives
access to historical and emergent
arditions of literature, culture and thought. Through critical interpretation
and dialogue, we
can see how language mediated through texts arranges
andallows different ways of knowing and lIiving. In the process you will read
language.
some of thegreatest wordsmithsand thinkers in the English
Cultural Studies, therefore, is a study of 'a particular way of life, whether of people,
of period, or a group,' according to Raymond Williams. Also,logical it is important to
nderstand that 'Cultural Studies' as an academic discipline is a approach to
human.
M00king at allsocial practices as 'political' rather than as aesthetic or
hus, like any academic discipline, this field, too, is defined by its
Object of study-namely culture
Ihe history of the discipline itself - its origins and evolution
Assumptions, methods and approaches - the different critical theories
--- Clifford Geertz, The
ere isno such thing as a human independent of Culture."
Interpretation of Cultures.
The above remark by Clifford Geertz points a certain co-relation between an
Dlal and his contemporary socio-political-economic history which becomes CIn this Chapter
prescriptivethatin shaping literary life. "Culture" is the socio-political
his personal and " Introduction of Cultural Studies
the private spaces
di0ccupi
scouresed dominates the public space and permeates into
by the individuals and becomes a part of their subconscious identity.
Feminism
Postcolonialism
Mostly, the literary texts produced by authors are symptomatic of their respornse/ " Manxism
to the social dynamics of their times, alonging or nostalgia for the
period
Teact
gone
ion achieve. Poststructuralism
by, or a vision of a utopian tomorrow they seek to
UGC NET
Origin and Evolution of Theories About Critical Studies
Cutural Studies Different thinkers propunded their ritical theories Thee
hn ven dittvul to pin down on a date/ period to Leavisite Criticisrn
mark the origins of Cultural Studies' for the study of Deriving fron the works f FP Leavis, the
Vulture has always attrated literary and critical focussed on re-distributing, vxial capaities on
mholars asa focal point of theirlearning of the author
and hisoontext. Nonetheless, the tradition could be
to the anonical traditial literature,
ppilarty
Great Tradition" in the Lraviar1 voxahulary
dated back to the 1860s with Mathew Arnold's
It strongly believed that the kwhedye "1he
Culture and Civilisation' which looked at the power endowed its beneficiaries with sxial asets. ThisCsea
of literar texts, especially canonical literature, in
shaping individual sensibility. termed by Pierre Bordieu as "Cultural Capital
Frankfurt School Theory
Origin of Cultural Studies Incontrast to the Leavisite Citícism, the Frankfurn
Cultural Studies as an academic fieldof study gained 1930s developed Icultural studies sternning frm an
currency with the publication of Richard Hoggart's of the popular culture, like popular music, popular Site
Use of Literacy (1957) and Raymond William's magazines. The imporant theorists of this chns,
Culture and Society (1958), challenging the and Horkheimer looked at "cultural industrie"
privileged aspects of literary traditions and taking
into account non-canonical cultural forms. role in socialcultural theories.
The stepping stone of Cultural Studies in Britaín was Mass Communication Theory
the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the Recent scholarship is expanding the soope of cultural wu
University of Birmingham in 1964 as Richard looking at new vistas like visual studies, cybercuiu
Hoggart as its first director. Under the directorship of technologies of embodiment and globalisation
Stuart Hall who joined Hoggart in Birmingham in The Politics of the Practising Experts
1964. the field of British Cultural Studies expanded
to concern itself with questions of subjectivity, Cultural studies as a field is constantBy fluid and in fx af cra
identity and power-politics. for it is a response to the various social changes occuring e
The scope of the programme widened and its access
immediate society and worid at large. Therefore. the ideriga
was shared with a wider audience through the leanings of the practitioners of culture studies have brug wt
its domain various other ideological theories in reading ate .
publication of the journal Working Papers in its context.
Cultural Studies.' By 1978 aseries of books were
brought out to discuss the approaches within the Such as Marxism, Feminism, Race, Caste, gender, and
domain of British Cultural Studies. which further defines the perception of the given theoris,
his/her work exclusive within an overarchíng framewotk.
Evolution of Cultural Studies
It is important to note that though the
Cultural Studies was primarily discipline framed at
of
Birmingham and the academics there played akey Major Thinkers of
role in its development, the scope of
Cultural Studies needs to take intoContemporary
account the Cultural Studies
developrment of this framework at other
such as in South-East Asia, sites too,
etc. Australia, Canada, Europe Richard Hoggart Bst
was a
Also, it is Born on 24th September 1918, Richard Hoggart and Sooang
specificities important to
of those Comprehend the
teritories or
cultural academic with English Literature, Cultural Studies impovenistes
understand Cultural Studies as a global nations to
the same time
as his prime areas of concern. He was born in an
He was
raise
Universt
the various
places where Cultural mount.of At
cultural specificities family and lost his parents at a very young Age. the
the his grandmother. He won a scholarship to read atFirst-Class degre
coming Studies developed
together wider ideologies of explain he
of Leeds and graduated from the University with a
and identity- Wo
He also served in he Royal Arillery duringthe Second
such politics class struggle,rubricpower-pol itics
Studies, as under the of sufferingbe
caste, nationality the Cultural Hoggart died at the age of 95 in 2014. He was
and so on. feminism, race, dementia.
culturalStudies 697
approach.
UGC NET
698 Tutor
Communtcations, 1966
Hall retired from the Open
University
he was elected Fellow of the British Ain
E1997 nglsh
Onwell, 1971
Language and Literature, 1981
The Year 2000, 983
he received European Cultural
Margriet Award. At the age of 82, Academy
Foundations'
he
In 24%
Marx on Culure, 2005 on 10th February, 2014.
His memoir, Familiar Stranger::A Life
breathed hig
Stuart Hall was posthumously published in 2017Between Two
Born on 3rd February, 1932 Stuart Hall was a Jamaican-born
Key Concepts Related to the
Islond
British Marxist sociologist. political and cultural theorist who
along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams was the Cultural Studies:
founding member of the Centre for British Cultural Studies in
Birmingham. He also foundedthe influentialNew Left Review,
and Ideology Hegemony, Power
abi-monthiv joumal covering world politics, economy and Hegemony
cultures. Derived from the Latin word
'hegemonia' ,,
Literary Career and Works means authority, rule or dominance
economnic state over another.
of one hegemoy
political o
Hallsucceeded Hoggart as the director for the Centre for British the socio-cultural and political Hegemorny stands to
Cultural Studies in 1968 and served as its director till 1979. He dominance of one definore
expanded the scope of the curriculum and research base at the group over the other.
relations which could be Controlled by intricate state
centre by incorporating race and gender as allied aspects in the
studv of culture. He also tried to incorporate new ideas from religious or social, a given military, political, power
economic
French theorists such as Michael Foucault. the culture and values classified group could dominate
operating in the society and
dictating its terms to the sub-ordinate.
In 1979, Hall left the post of the director and
joined the Open As in the case of power relations
University as a professor of sociology. There, he went on to between the ruling and
become the President of the British Sociological
Association working class, the coloniser and the colonised, the racial
from 1995-97. or the gendered superior and the 'other'
and so on.
In 1995, Hallwas the founding editor of Power
Culture. He was also closelySoundings:
of Politics and A Journal
associated The concept of Power' is most fundamental to the
journal, Marxism Today. Hall played a crucial role in with the shaping of socio-cultural and political spaces, where the
Arts Movement. For movie the Black
Julien, Hallwas a heroic figure.directors, John Akomfrah and Isaac dominant hegemonic group maintains a status quo by
influencing their socio-economic-politico-cultural
Hall wrote
several influential articles, such as The dominant is able to influence the beliefs, valuesorder
and
Situating Marx: Evaluations and perceptions; and this is done to control the
Encoding and Decoding in the Television Departures (1972) SOCio-economic resources. Power is mostBy authontatNe
Resistance through Rituals (1975) Discourse (1973) and deeply rooted in the everyday social existence.
Policing the Crisis - A
The Hard Road to Book-(1978)
Renewal (1988) Ideology
Formations of An ideology is a set of beliefs and ideas held by an
Modernity (1992)
Questions of Cultural Identity (1996)
Cultural Representations individualeconomic
social,
or a group which becomes
or political theory. The
fortheir
a basis term
Familiar Stranger: A Life and Signifying Practices (1997) "ideology" was coined by a French philosopher.,
Antoine
Hall spoke Between Two Destutt de
used
1983 at heinternationally on 'Culture' in aIslands (2017) Tracy in 1796. However, the conceptis
understoodit
and later University of Illinois. series of lectures in much
to be. differently today than what Tracy
became a theoretical These lectures were recorded
Theoretical History base for
Cultural
Grossberg in 2016. published Jennifer SlackStudies 1983:A
by In the couldbe
Legion of Merleau
Havel Prize. Honor, through her study of
P
Ponty. She contributes
pointeds
Simon de
Beauvoir
specificallythe
difference between thelanguage
Prize , and
wom
Inigaray
received her Bachelor's degree from the Literary Career and Works
Louvain in 1954 and Masters degree in
U'niversity of She holds honorary degrees from Universities in Canada,
1956. Ireland, UK and USA. From 2008 to 2014, she was at the
From 1956
to 1959, she taught at a high school in Cornell University as a Professor.
Brussels.
She attained her Doctorate degree in 1968. Her prime focus
In1961.she
completed her Master's in Psychology from during this time was English Literature and the works of James
as an
of
the University Paris. In 1962, she received aspecialist
Joyce. She joined the University of Bordeaux in 1962
diplomain Psychopathology. In 1968, she completed her assistant and kept ascending in posts.
was
doctoratefrom Paris X Nanterre. She earned a second During the time of French students riots in 1968, shewhich
h) in 1974. Her second PhD earned her great repute charged with the opening of University of Paris VIII,
alternate to the
hut also led to her suspension from Ecole Freudienne de was believed to have been opened as an
Paris. directed by Lacan where she attended Lacan's traditional French academia. In 1974, Cixous opens the
VIII,
seminars. Her work was not received well by Lacanian Centre for Women's Studies in the University of Paris
and Freudian circles. the first of its kind in Europe.
Not much is known about Irigaray's personal life for she In the 1970s, Cixous began writing on the relationship between
extensively
believed that an interest in her biography would impact sexuality and language. Thereon, she has published
as "the
the reading of her works and be used against her in the and on a variety of subjects. Derrida referred to her
male-dominated society. greatest living writer in the French language."
the
Irngaray's works combined various ideologies in putting In 2000, a collection in Cixous' name was created at
forth her perspective theory on women/ feminism. She Bibliotheque nationale de France to which Cixous donated all
brings together structuralism/ post structuralism, her manuscripts.
Manism and psychoanalysis while offering her feminist Major Works
argument. The Newly Born Woman, 1975
Major Works Stigmata, 1988
The Book of Promethea, 1983
This Sex Which is Not One, 1977 Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing, 1993
Speculum of the Other Woman, 1974 Helen Cixous, Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing, 1994
Ethics of Sexual Difference, 1982 Coming to Writing and Other Essays
In the Beginning She Was, 2012 Writing Notebooks of Helen Cixous, 2004
Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzche, 1991 Reading with Claice Lispector, 1989
ILove to You, 1990 The Terrible But Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King
To Be Two, 1994 of Cambodia, 1985
The Way of Love, 2002 Hyperdrecam, 2006
Entre Orient et Occident, 1999 Manhattan, 2002
Sharing the World, 2008 First Days of the Year, 1990
The Irigaray Reader, 1991 Peaceful Revolution, 1994
White Ink: Interviews on Sex, Text and Politics, 2008
Thinking the Difference for a Readings: A Novel, 1991
Forgetting of Air, 1999 Dream I Tell You, 2003
New Human Being, 2017
ToBe Born: Genesis of a 1994 Insister of Jacques Derrida, 2006
Democracy Begins Between Two, The Laugh of the Medusa, 2010
Translated from the French, 1992
Elemental Passions: Portrait of Jacques Derrida, 2001
Conversations, 2008 Veils, 2001
Everyday Prayers, 2004 Philippine, 2011
Death Shall be Dethroned, 20 l6
Helen Cixous Love Itself: In the Letter Box, 2008
French feminist, poet,
Born in 1937, Helen Cixous is a most Zero's Neighbour: Sam Beckett, 2007
and literary critic. Her which
playwright, philosopher Laugh Angst, 1977
of the Medusa"
notable work is "The feminist. The Day IWasn't There, 2004
poststructuralist
established her as a Inside, I986
704 UGC NIT TutOr
Ahstncts and Hriet Chncles of the lime, 2016 driven hy natinaa thinben
yEapes, 2012 Mohandas Gandihi nd Vva
Tombye), 2014 talpolitical nedhanism
Soose. 2002 oher approach, however, onEDS tuigst
etn in Painting Witing on Contemporary Ats and lhscourse in which the
Aesthetk, 2012
olites, ithich and Ierfomance, 2016 "Ppie' ometimes defending
other times glorifying them
iheoretians ite
Vollevs of Humanity Essays 1972-2009, 2011
Twists and Tums in the Heart's Antarctc, 2013 Spivak could be asS ted with
d ranslormation.
Bdwad Sad
this plitks
Neuter, |472
Origin and Evolution
Clearly postcolonialism is to do with
Postcolonialism binary power relations that the
"Things fall apart,thc centre cannot hold;
nd the colonized. operate exami
Yet,the prefix 'postbetween
is
thening á
debate in the term
Mere anarchy is looscd upon the world." Lraditions within posteolonial The aCaue tw diteea
(WB Yeats poem 7he Scond Coming')
terminologles- posteolonialism prcter
The idea of 'anarchy' and things falling While he firstPost-coonial and posteolonial, respecte
centre cannot hold in a way best describesapart becauNe the focusses on the
literature post the colonial rule, inhistory. peoltikdes
the traditions of
colonialism which the postcolonial corpus of literature, independence is which the
theory and activism challenges,
sixteenth century. the colonial andDating back to the Necond UNage NUally seen as the watershed date the
dernotes the years of political and atu
between the West and the non-west has imperial encounter struggles that need not depend on
believeindependence
led to historical, for post-colonial, for they to
quai,
political and cultural ramifications often postcolonial in thought. their resistance to be
Eurocentric superiority on the dictating a
be inferior, barbaric and natives who are believed to It is
uncivilized. The difficult to resolve the debate, Yet, it is believedthat te
of the colonial authority
along with itssuperimposition
culture and
nationalist debates after 1945 as well as the
intellectul
civilization have led to the social exclusion and
works that were
antí-colonialist are both responsible in
of the native systems, cultures and
civilizations.
denigration shaping the posteolonial worldview,. In the
In an attempt to domain d
postcolornial studies, however, Edward Said's publication
of the colonial establish the dominance and
ruler, the colonizer pre-eminence Orientalism in 1978 is understood to be the precu 4
has often posteolornial
suppress the native systems of culture and sought to studies. Said non-materialist approach shape
by Foucault's ideas on Power
including their language, ritual practices and other civilisation, highlights the theury
life codes by routine exelusion and depravation
These acts of demeaning them as regressive or obsolete. and neo-colonial situations. as central to the postcolonal
resisted by thesuppression and
natives in orderoppression,
to save their however, were theorists, Spivak and Bhabha, Other important postcolonu
too, used theory
languages,
there was cultures and lifestyles. Also, at a indigenous understand the postcolonial situation.
political resistance to the broaderoflevel, While Spivak offered a Deridean reading. Bhabha oflereda
colonizer whowas considered to be an authority the
Lacanian examination, In the ficld of postcolonialstudes.
This opposition outsider.
where dhe colonized between he colonizer and the much was also offered by postcolonial writers of fiction,
authority, voice can attempts o regain its colonized who were answering back the Empire through theirow
lost power,
be
understood
history. poitics, and literature as
postcolonial in mechanisms.
Post respectively.
the colonialis1nto can therefore be said to be Thinkers of Postcolonialism
colonized the culonial the response of
the important division of oppression. is Elleke Boehmer
avery
Postcolonialism
social and political cultural studies for it
Acclaimed Poostcolanal
into two justice, Posticnolequalliitsiems incanorder
structural Cxamines as a in the field of Literature
approaches. Theoniafirst be
to bring
about studies, Elleke founding
Boehmer
figure
is: a Professor
in English at the University of Oxfordof and
World
Goverming
one brrooadly
being divided Body Fellow in
Wasbortn
anti-colonial 1961 Dutch
o
at Wolfson College. Boehmer
parents in Durban, South Africa.
turolStudies
705
of iPaul
ve Literature
working under
on Yeats. She the guidance
Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee and Certain
de Man. Herand started Teaching, 2018
school, Sligo,presented a
discussing course
postcolonial realn,
on thesis was
Yeats' Yeats in Yeats Summer
Harlem, 2012
Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered
Post-coloniality.
HomiK Bhabha putting forth the theory of Marxism, strikingly sums up the
Bornin1949,, Homi K. Bhabha is an Indian English scholar cruxof his philosophy. Marxism attempts to offer a historical
theorist. He was born in Bombay into a Parsi family. analysis of the socio-economic means of production, thereby
eived his carly education and Bachelor's degree from offering an understanding of the class relations arnd social
University of Mumbai, and later went to Oxford conflicts. According to Marx and his friend and collaborator,
('niversity Friedrich Engels, arn investigation into the structure and the
role of economic and productive processes within it is the
Literary Career and Works key tocomprehending the contemporary society.
He serves as Professor of English and American literature Marxist theorists argue that incapitalist societies, there is a
and as the Director of the Mahindra Humanities Centre at definitive relation between its two major classes, the
Harvard University. proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and this relationship
He taught at the English Department at the University of comprises mostly of contradictions in the material interests
Sussex for almost ten years, after which he received a senior of both. The proletariat or the working class consisting of
felowship at the Princeton University. He was also a visiting wage labourers, employed to produce goods and services is
Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow exploited by the oppressive bourgeoise or the ruling cdass
faculty at Dartmouth College. that owns the means of production. The bourgeoise wold
Bhabha also served as an Editor of Public Culture, an amass and appropriate the surplus produced by the
academic journal by Duke University Press. proletariat leading to a more than unequal distríbution of
the profit, leading to depravation and dissatisfaction arnong
In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the the labour class.
Indian Government.
The increasing exploitation of the wage labourers and the
Bhabha is a very important figure in the field of growing dissatisfaction among them leads to social crísis
postcolonial studies; he is credited with coining of various which often shoots out a revolution. For Marx this in itseif is
important terms in the field of postcolonial studies, such as a process that could finally culminate in the establishrment of
hybridity, mimicry, difference, ambivalence and so on. socialism, a society that is classless and maintains equity
among it citizens thereby catering to the needs of all by
Major Works India after erasing the boundaries between the bourgeoise and the
Midnight to the Boom: Painting in proletariat, the ruling and the working class.
Independence, 2013
Marxist Literary theory, drawing its base from economics,
Mtra Tabrizian: Another Country, 2012 Reflections on moves on to focus on class relations and the mnarket scenario
Contemporary
Our Neighbours, Ourselves: within which the text, the writer and its readers operate. The
Survival, 2011 Marxist critic is able to comprehend not only what the text
Raqib Shaw: Absence of God, 2009 says but also why it says and what it not says owing to the
1000 Names, 1998
invisible power relations operative in the society. A Marxist
Mary Kelly, 1997 critic, therefore, goes beyond the obvious and tries to
The Location of Culture, 1994
understand the underlying ideology of the text and that of its
ldentity: The Real Me, 1987 author.
In1946. Althusser resumed his studies. Around this Gramsci's knowledge base included various thínkers such as
across a Machiavelli, Vilfredo Pareto, Georges Sorel and Benedetto
nod, he came
series of thinkers and Croce; these were the widely respected Italian intellectuals of his
nhlosophers who influenced and impacted his times. His notebooks exhibit adeep understanding of critical
Anguments. Such as Helene
Rytmann,
Hegel. Herman Hesse, and Jacques Martin, theories of these thinkers and cover a wide range of topics like
so on. Martin Italian Nationalism, French Reyolution, fascism, Fordism, civil
smially'cultivated
Cvailles, Georges
IAlthusser's interest in reading Jean society, high and popular culture and so on.
Canguilhem and Hegel. The
ombination of Catholicism and The theory of cultural hegemony could be credited to Gramsci
Marxism led him to in which he unravels how bourgeoise, that is the state and the
adopt German idealism and Hegelian thought. ruling class, uses cultural institutions to maintaín power in a
Ahusser delivered many lectures and conferences at
Fxole Norman Superieure in capitalist society. The bourgeoise develop their ideology which
eminent French philosophers such participation with emanated as "common sense" or the belief system which
as Lacan and dictates a pattern of cultural norms and values allocating power
Deleuze. These lectures had a great impact on and resources to the superstructure. The proletariat are left out
wel-known French philosophers, who were amongnowhis from this space which becomes elitist.
students, like Derrida, . Michael Foucault., Pierre
Bourdieu, etc. Literary Career and Works
Later in his life, his bent of mind shifted In 1911, Gramsci won a scholarship to study at the
towards of Turin. This was a period of great social turmoil as University
Voltaire, Condorcet, Hobbes and Locke. His study was Turin was
compiled in book form, released by Francis Matheron in going through phases of industrialisation kicked off by the
2006. setting of fiat and Lancia factories.
In 1913, he joined the Italiarn Socialist Party and got a
In 1980, owing to his growing mental instability, he observe the Russian Revolution. chance to
killed his wife, Helene Rytmann. He was not tried
legaly because of his mental condition but was sent to In 1914, Gramsci began writing for socialist
newspapers and his
writings turned him into a respectable journalist.
an asylúm. He did little academic work thereafter and
died in 1990. In 1916, he co-edited Piedmont edition of
ner Avanti, an Italian
newspaper, which became the manifesto of the Italian Socialist
an
Major Works Party.
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, 1970 For the most part of his life, he kept working for the
ic
Politics and History, 1981 working class. The establishment of the new fascistwelfare of the
h
Sur La Reproduction under Mussolini and their emergency laws heeded government
For Marx, 1965 to the socialist parties. Gramsci evern served 1l several blows
Fhilosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the. health continued to deteriorate in jail. At the age years in jail. His
Scientists and the Other Essays, 1974 of 46, he died in
the year 1937.
Essays on ldeology, 1984
Montesquieu, RouSseau, Marx, 1972 Major Works
How to be a Marxist in Philosophy, 2017 Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1947
Essays in Self-criticism, 1974 2003 Prison Notebooks, Volume 2, 1948
The Humanist Controversy and other Writings, The Antonio Gramsci Reader:
1937 Selected Writings 1916-1935,
Antonio Gramsci an Italian Marxist., The Modern Prince and Other
The Southern Question Writings, 1959
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was
politician. Heis considered Selections from Cultural
phineo-Marxist
a losopher
and comnmunist
as he tried to
break free from traditional
founding member of the
L'albero del Ricco, 1966 Writings, 198S
Selections from Political Writings, 1910-20, 1974
Marxism.He was the
Communist Party of Italy and was
imprisoned by
In prison, he wrote
Pre-prison
A
Writings, 1994
Benito Mussolini's fascist regime.
Great and Terrible World: The
significantly contributed to 1992 Pre-Prison Letters:
about 30 notebooks which history. II 1908-1926
the twentieth century poolitical
Materialismo Storico, 1948
UGC NET
710
Roland Barthes
Bonin November 1915, Roland Gerard arthes
Poststructuralism literary theorist, critic, philosopher
amidt ocrrences of ideas developed and influeice a wide artay h ry
The temm Poststructuralisnn' Such as semiot ics, structuralism,
be understood as a
several historncal vents coud namely anthropoogy
counterrevoution against the system before it,
human
struturalism Stnucturalisnn's premise that Literary Career and Works
culture could only be comprehended by means of a From 1935-39, Barthes studied
model, structured on language, was fundamentally dassical literatute,
his academic periods were plagued by
challenged by poststructuralists by emphasising the which prevented him frorn taking ariy perds d
plurality and multiplicity, that is considered as a base by
structuralists. The rejcction of self-sufficiency offered Due to his medical condition, he was qualifying
als,
bv the meaning of a given word within a linguistic code military service during World War Il.
is the main premise of the poststructuralists. To both The period between 1939-48 was spent
structuralists as well as poststructuralists, language is grammar and philology. Soon, in the year receiving
1941, he
central. However, one chooses to construct the subject
in and with language, while the other questions this very
construction of the subject. For this reason, the
equivalent M.A degree from the
Tragedy. University of eanee
Paris
discourse of the poststructuralists theorists or thinkers In 1948, Barthes gained various
is not based on one common doctrine; and is rather
based on anti-essentialism.
institutes in France,
the Centre NationaleRomania
short-term
and Egypt. By 1932, hepostne
vei
a
de la Recherche
Origin and Evolution spent seven years studying sociologyScientifique,
and
why
contributing to journals and magazines. lexicoiog:
It is difficult to pin down the origin of
to one thinker or one date. poststructuralism In 1957, Barthes began
However, one can argue that he met Richard Howard,teaching at Middlebury College vter
poststructuralism as a philosophical position originated
with the disillusionment translator.
who would later become his Engs
with the systems in the Post
World War ll period. More specifically By the 1960s
the disappointments faced from stemming from
the failure of the
Barthes works had earned him great repute H
was travelling
Socialist communist politics and the death of
conferences. extensively
to deliver lectures and a
leader, the Soviet
Joseph Stalin. To rip apart the
Capitalist, socialism was perceived oppressive He wrote his best
However, dismantling of the bases toof be necessary. This essay provedessay in 1967, The Death of the
an important piece in the
Auther
politics was equally pertinent. the socialist study
Other important events
deconstruction and the structuralist
contributed to the thought. He
post s truct u ral ist thought
leading to the beginning of the which avant-garde
was developing similar literary magazine, Que Ted
were
against he Gaulist party and left-wing protests
the theoretical premise.
France. This was also the the students riots in InBarthes wrote his
exiSarrestenthadialisbeen time 1977, autobiography
t philosophy of Albert Camus andpromise of Department at the Collegeelected
when the Barthes was
in 1975 titled Roland|Barhes
the chair to the Semioo
thinkers acrossexhaust of France. He died in an accident
theed. globe, Jean-Paul 1980. His last few works were basically
At this
point, emerged meditations t
poststructDerriuralidsta, Paulthinkersde such as Roland
Jacques generationseveralof photographs of his mother who died in 1977.
Guat
hesetadiri,stiGiles Del e uze Man, Michel Barthes, Major Works
nct rs had their ownri SpiFoucaul
ural houghtschol, amaki
stoneructcommon
and Gayat
v ak. t, Felixof Mythologies, 1957
Each Camera Lucida, 1980
these definition orng it difficofult toversi on of post The Death of the
foundatchalionallengedconcethepts. Westschoolern metahought
come up
physics and its
A
. Yet, allwithof Lover'
S/Z, 1970
s Author,
Discourse,
The Pleasure of the
1977
1967
Image-Music-Text, 1977
1953 Major Works
Is'riting Degree Zero, 1964 OfGrammatology, 1967
Elements of Semiology, Specters of Marz, 1993
Mourning Diary, 2009 (Posthumous) Archive Fever, 1995
The Rustle of Language, 1984 (Posthumous) The Gift of Death, 1992
Reader, l975
ABarthes Margins of Philrsoptry, 1972
The Grain of the Voice, 1981 (Posthumous) The Anirnal that Therefore 1 Am, 292
Travels in China
Glas, 1974
CriticalEssays, 1963 194)
The Post Card: Frorn Sscrates to Fresd and Beyrd.
Criticism and Truth, 1966 The Truth in Painting, 197%
The Semiotic Challenge, 1985 (Posthumous) Limited Inc, 1988
Sade, Fourier, Loyola, 1971 Speech and Phenornena, 1967
The Responsibility of Forms The Work of Mourming, 201
Sur Racine, 1963 The Beast and the Sovereig
What is Sport? Right to Philosophy, 1990
The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies, 1979 Deconstruction in a Nutshell, 197
(Posthumous) Of Spirit, 1989
Introduction to the Structural Analysis of the Narrative, Acts of Literature, 1991
1966 On Touching- Jean-luc Nancy.2000
Spurs, 1978
Jacques Derrida ElMonolinguisrno del Otro, 1996
Algerian-born Of Hospitality, 1997
Born in July 1930, Jacques Derrida was an and Acts of Religion, 2002
Poststructuralism
French philosopher associated with was Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, 2003
Deconstruction. His early education at school A Derrida Reader, 1991
frequently interrupted due to the changing governmental Learning to Live Firnally
However, at the age of 22,
politics implemented at school.Superieure where he met and
On Cosmopolitanísrm and Forgvenes, 2001
he entered the Ecole Normale In 1954, he completed
Dar La Muerte, 2004
became friends with Louis Althusser. Edmund Husserl. Philosophy in a Time of Terror, 2003
Philosophy on Memoirs of theBlind: The Seif-porrait and Oher Rrs 1
his Master's degree in Deconstruction and Critícism, 1979