Reflections on Poststructuralism

Poststructuralism

We all know that structuralism was based on the main premise that the structure of human world can be well understood by the structure of language. But during 1960s, the post structural authors philosophers raised doubts about the validity of the language itself to unravel the mysteries and obstinate questionings about our universe. Foucalt aptly remarked that god was crumbling under our feet.

The poststructural authors are attracted by themes like Marxism, feminism, nihilism and anarchism. From De Saussure's structuralist thought to Derrida's deconstruction theories it is evident that we can never fully understand or know anything, as the the interpretation of words differ from aone individual to another.

The author’s writing is not so important as its interpretation by the reader. The truth is that the reader of a poem is the real autor of the poem as he brings new interpretation quite different from the original intention of the poet. The reader writes and creates the poem; the actual writer doesn’t exist. We can never know the originali ntention of the author. What matters is the interpretation of the reader in his or her mind.

This poststructuralism has confused a lot of students in colleges and universities.