From: Josep-Anton Fernandez <J.A.Fernandez-AT-qmw.ac.uk>
Date: 5 Dec 1994 17:33:56 GMT0BST
Subject: Re: Deleuze and Postmodernity


Jon writes:

>And I just noticed today that in _Looking Awry_ Zizek states that 
>the French don't use the term poststructuralism, either... what do 
>they talk about?

That's right. To my knowledge, the term poststructuralism sounds a 
bit strange to French ears. If it means 'that which comes after 
structuralism' they are a bit surprised, particularly as in literary 
studies structuralist theory is very much well established (go to a 
French bookshop: Derrida is under 'philosophy', Kristeva is under 
'linguistics' or 'psychoanalysis', where you'll also find Lacan; 
Foucault is either under 'history' or 'philosophy'...); my French 
contacts tell me that Derrida is seen as something from the sixties 
and seventies. On the other hand, if by poststructuralism you mean 
a certain 'school' or 'trend' or 'group' etc of French thinkers 
after structuralism, and you therefore talk about 'poststructuralist 
ideas' or 'poststructuralist reading' etc, they'll be even more 
confusing, because they can't see much in common between say 
Derrida, Lacan, Barthes and Foucault. They are however aware that in 
the Anglo-saxon world the term 'poststructuralism' is used; indeed 
the very word seems an Anglo-American invention which has got into 
European discourse from America.

As for the question 'what do they talk about?', maybe the French 
don't feel the need to use a classificatory term such as 
poststructuralism; I suppose they just talk about contemporary 
philosophy, I don't know.

Josep.




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Josep-Anton Fernandez                    ______
Dept of Hispanic Studies                 \    /          EQUALITY NOW!
Queen Mary & Westfield College,           \  /           IGUALTAT ARA!
London E1 4NS, Le Royaume-Uni.             \/
j.a.fernandez-AT-qmw.ac.uk

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