From: "Lowe Laclau" <lowelaclau-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Ambivalence towards poststructuralism....
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 09:59:21 -0500
<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV>
<P><BR>I really dislike the use of the word "post-structuralism" to describe a breed of thinkers or a 'type' of thinking present in the intellectual arena. The term only had significance when "structuralism" was still the popular way of approaching analyses (and how far was this really a phenomenon outside of the Continent?) and certain prominent figures began to criticize it and do their own things. It is bothersome because it assumes that whoever these 'post-structuralists' are that we are talking about first had some structuralist phase (which we might say is true if we are speaking about Foucault or Barthes or Althusser or someone like that) from which they eventually moved on. It also assumes that the 'post-structuralist' is somehow so beyond structualism that its merits are someone bypassed by him or that the conditions of structure are not considered at all. When we use such labels, I do not deny that there may be a class that is described and describable by this, but sometimes I fear that we use it in a manner that allows us to not have to think about the great expanse of difference that we are trying to subsume within such a small concept. </P>
<P>And when people criticize Jean Baudrillard, does it really make sense to make such over-arching indiscriminatory proclamations about his 'apologist' status? The man has said and done a lot of contradictory things in 40 or so years...</P>
<P>Lowe<BR></P></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>From: Cliff Staples <CLIFFORD_STAPLES-AT-UND.NODAK.EDU>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
<DIV></DIV>>To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: AUT: Ambivalence towards poststructuralism....
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2002 11:00:20 -0600
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>At 07:06 AM 11/1/02 -0800, Michael Handelman wrote:
<DIV></DIV>>>Often I find myself having an EXTREMELY ambivalent
<DIV></DIV>>>attitude towards Poststructuralismit seems to me, it
<DIV></DIV>>>can be used for almost *any* purposes: From
<DIV></DIV>>>anti-capitalist purposes (eg as in Dyer-Witheford's
<DIV></DIV>>>"Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High
<DIV></DIV>>>Technology Capitalism") or as an apologist for the
<DIV></DIV>>>status quo, (eg much of Baudrillard's work).
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Michael: It would seem that ANYTHING can be used for ANY purpose,
<DIV></DIV>>no? Rorty notes somewhere (Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, I
<DIV></DIV>>think) that anything can be made to appear good or bad by being
<DIV></DIV>>re-described from another vantage point. This seems sound from my
<DIV></DIV>>experience and reading. Your statement seems to assume that things
<DIV></DIV>>have an essence that somehow can not be violated, e.g. "this belief
<DIV></DIV>>system can only be used for good, while that one over there can only
<DIV></DIV>>be used for evil... Poststructuralism appears ambivalent so, what,
<DIV></DIV>>off to Purgatory? Poststructuralism has no mechanical or chemical
<DIV></DIV>>hold on those who might use it. Poststructuralism is nothing
<DIV></DIV>>outside of a particular rhetorical occasion. Indeed, to give it
<DIV></DIV>>agency in this way is either idolatry or reification, depending on
<DIV></DIV>>your point of view.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>>It would be interesting to compare the attitudes
<DIV></DIV>>>towards poststructuralism of radical intellectuals
<DIV></DIV>>>outside of academia vs radical intellectuals inside academia.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>How so? Why the tired presumption that those "outside" of academia
<DIV></DIV>>are morally superior than those inside it? Indeed, what of this
<DIV></DIV>>"inside" "outside" fantasy to begin with?
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Cliff Staples
<DIV></DIV>>
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