Post-structuralism and Postmodernism
Definitions
Post-structuralism is an ontological and epistemological position that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century within the humanities and social sciences. It reflects a move beyond structuralist ontologies of the social world, including Marxism, structuralist anthropology and psychoanalysis, in which core social, cultural or psychological structures are considered to constrain strongly the possibilities of human action. Post-structuralism retains structuralist concerns with power relations but emphasises the role of knowledge and textual processes in achieving and sustaining relations of power.
Postmodernism is closely associated with post-structuralism, and might be thought of as the “political wing” of the latter perspective, in the sense that is suspicious of, and seeks to undermine the grand narratives of modernist social organisation and domination including capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism and heteronormativity. It adopts post-structuralist epistemologies and ontologies in preference to structuralist explanations, to expose the contradictions within these grand narratives of control or domination. In so doing……..
