A Response to Structuralism

The attachment of "post" to any body of theory represents the end of an era. Therefore, the idea of poststructuralsim means that structuralism had flaws. Poststructuralsim has one main goal which is to fix the problems that were evident in structuralism. In a way, it is in response to the general idea of structuralism. Poststructuralsim depends on structuralism but is a completely separate theory. They are similar in ways, the main being that they both view language as a system. Poststructuralism was formed as a criticism to structuralism citing counterpoints to the flaws in structuralism. An example of this criticism is the idea of binary pairs. In structuralism, an example of a binary pair is the comparison between two synonyms. The only way a word obtains a definition is in relation to a synonym. In response to this view, poststructuralsim believes that words are contaminated by one another.

The process of deconstruction uses both poststructuralism and structuralism to determine the center of a text. In poststructuralsim, there is a belief of a center. As said in class, deconstruction is poststructuralsim in practice. Deconstruction is reading the text against itself. As a result, the center of the text will be found. Therefore, poststructuralsim and structuralism largely effect to the process of deconstruction.