1. POST STRUCTURALISM
Post-structuralism’s main book, Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari, is in
fact an attempt to combine Marx and Freud (the subtitle is ‘Capitalism and
Schizophrenia’) by liberation through free desire. Post-structuralism is
really a cultural movement more than an intellectual movement.
Structuralism in the 60s was at least in part an intellectual programme, and
it was possible to analyse phenomena by treating them as being parts of a
system. Post-structuralism moved beyond this, questioning the very
notions of Truth, Reality, Meaning, Sincerity, Good etc. It regarded all
absolutes as constructions, truth was created, it was an effect, it wasn’t
present ‘in’ something. Similarly there was no authority, no Real,
everything was defined in terms of everything else, and that process itself
was relative and constructed.
The main philosopher for the poststructuralists was the nineteenth century
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose main thought began with the
realisation that if God is dead, anything is possible – everything is
permitted, everything is relative. There are no absolutes anymore.
Nietzsche also wrote in a style similar to an Old Testament prophet (see for
example his Thus Spoke Zarathustra) – his style is full of such phrases as
“we are living among the ruins of God” – and post-structuralists tend to
follow this poetic style.