poststructuralism

post struc tur al ism |pōs (t )ˈstrəkCHərəˌlizəm poʊs (t )ˈstrəktʃərəˌlɪzəm | ▶noun an extension and critique of structuralism, esp. as used in critical textual analysis. Emerging in French intellectual life in the late 1960s and early 1970s, poststructuralism departed from the claims to objectivity and comprehensiveness made by structuralism and emphasized instead plurality and deferral of meaning, rejecting the fixed binary oppositions of structuralism and the validity of authorial authority. DERIVATIVES post struc tur al adjective, post struc tur al ist noun & adjective