Page 88 - Decoding Culture

4 Situating

Sub eects
J

The passage that we must now negotiate is that from structuralism
to post-structuralism. It is not a passage through clear, calm seas,
nor are its ports of embarkation and destination precisely mapped.
Although Chapter 3 has given us some sense of the topography of
Saussurian structuralism, as we also saw in that chapter Saussure's
French interpreters soon began to extend his principles in unex­
pected directions. Quite when they crossed the line into 'post­
structuralism' is unclear, so much so that I am tempted not to use
the expression at all without the ironic protection afforded by quo­
tation marks. Post-structuralism is an all too elastic concept. Rather
like the famous post-Impressionist exhibition once mounted in
London's Royal Academy and, to this bemused spectator at least,
seemingly composed of every style of painting after 1905, post­
structuralism expands without limit to encompass vast reaches of
European thought. Whereas most would agree that Derrida is post­
structuralist, or Kristeva, or Barthes after S/Z, some might balk at
Foucault, or throw up their hands at that prophet of the postmod­
ern, Lyotard. Indeed, more confusion has been sown by that
simple prefix 'post' than by any number of muddled attempts to
define structuralism in the first place.

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