What is post-structuralism?
In: Other
Structuralism is the philosophical idea that phenomena in life are only intelligible as they relate to other experiences. For example, you see King Kong and you are able to understand the creature as a giant version of a gorilla. Your knowledge of gorillas builds into your understanding of Kong
Post-structuralism is the rejection of structuralism, saying that Kong requires no predefined explanation to understand.
Naturally, as this is a philosophical movement, and not an art movement, examples include the formation of language or, perhaps most famously, “The Death of the Author”
Death of the Author is a post-structural idea that when a writer fixes a book, film, or other form of art into the public consciousness, they lose all control over the themes and ideas in the work. Not in any legal sense, of course, but in the artistic sense. The viewer of that media gets to decide what they believe is happening.
It doesn’t matter if the author intended a movie to be about strong, masculine men who always get the girl, if the viewers see the characters as homosexual… Then they’re homosexual.
Latest Answers