From the De-Centred Subject to Relationality

Abstract

The poststructuralist concept of the de-centred subject has been central to the deconstruction of the desire for mastery, self-sameness and identity. Through a deconstruction of the desirous logic of binary oppositions such as subject–object, I–You, self–other, masculine–feminine, poststructuralists bring to light the subversive possibilities in the negated term. This term is based on principles of meaning that displace the sameness and separation of oppositional logic: what is repressed is difference and relation. We argue that difference and relationality cannot be deduced through a deconstruction of binary oppositions and the centred subject. Relations are based on an alternative ontology, time and space, and on an inclusive rather than an exclusive or oppositional logic. The key to this different logic is a distinction between finitude and infinitude. Whereas oppositions presume the existence of finite terms, relationality presumes the reality of infinitude. In an experience of relationality, subjecthood is suspended; there are no finite terms, but, rather, the undefinable non-oppositional difference of wholeness.