Product Description

Poststructuralism changes the way we understand the relations between human beings, their culture, and the world. Following a brief account of the historical relationship between structuralism and poststructuralism, this Very Short Introduction traces the key arguments that have led poststructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture. Whilst the author discusses such well-known figures as Barthes, Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan, she also draws pertinent examples from literature, art, film, and popular culture, unfolding the postructuralist account of what it means to be a human being.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23789 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Guardian
"A wonderfully clear account"

Review
A wonderfully clear account (Guardian )

About the Author
Professor Catherine Belsey was Fellow and Tutor at New Hall, Cambridge from 1969 to 1975. She currently chairs the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University.

Customer Reviews

A Personal Revolution
I'm an art student, and as I was interested in orders and structures I picked this up in the bookshop, thinking "oh, what's structuralism?" This book was so inspiring, its concise and excellent explanation of the key ideas with diverse and sometimes surprising references, was absolutely riveting. I read it in one evening, without being able to put it down, and it has formed a fundamental point of inspiration to me. Absolutely brilliant.

Somewhat superficial
I'm aware of the irony of using a word usually associated with postmodernism to criticise a book on poststructuralism but for me, this book seemed a lot better on a flick-through than it turned out to be.

The author writes well and engagingly but poststructuralism is a complex field and I felt that the difficult aspects were skipped over in favour of the more entertaining.