Poststructuralist Research Articles

Technopoieses and the White Buffalo Calf Woman

Abstract: The article proposes that indigenous theory as it can be aligned with Western European theory and philosophy provides a new way to view post human theory and philosophy and the theory of emergent networks and systems that have come with post structuralism. Author situates his own practices in a hanbleceya in an analysis of the aforementioned theories and philosophies for a recursive system that loops back to the premises of the article. The circular structure of the article reinforces the position of the author regarding indigeneity and Western philosophy, which is that indigenous theory that is based on practice can excite western philosophy and theory with new conceptions of past, present and future.

Native American Literature and L’Écriture Féminine: The Case of Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich is an especially important contemporary American author because she draws together two key elements that have characterized American literature for more than a generation: a concern with issues of identity and the stylistic innovations of postmodern literature. As a nodal point for these two different traditions, Erdrich is ideally situated to illustrate the continuing relevance of French feminist theory to the collective American literary project. Because of her stylistic and conceptual innovation, Erdrich’s early work provoked controversy. While authors such as Leslie Marmon Silko attacked her writing as superficially “post-modernist,” we argue that it is more accurately identified with the work of French feminists like Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray, who effected a shift from essentializing identity politics toward experimental construction of subjectivity through linguistic innovation. Erdrich’s deconstruction of her female protagonists, and of gender identity more broadly, provides an effective avenue for continuing to explore the relevance of l’ecriture feminine in contemporary American literature.

Impressionist cinema: Scenoplastica of polyvision

The subject matter of the analysis comprises the systematisation of the French avant-garde film model and its treatment of the frame dynamics. The avant-garde French theorists' and the author's comparison of the aesthetical-theoretical model addresses the issue of the development of expressing movement in the frame, by the techniques of estrangement and de-automatization of audio-visual material. Each cinematographic concept of the stylistic treatment of the movement model, although, in a way dependent on other current viewpoints in the world, has had its own specific form. Considering the treatment of the phenomenon of movement, conceived in the development of French theory and practice, it is the hypothetical questions of stylistic development of the French avant-garde cinematography that are analysed. Furthermore, the influence of the French avant-garde's experimental approach to movement in the frame on the development of French art is discussed.

Autopsie von Revolution und Restauration: Georg Büchner und die politische Imagination by Patrick Fortmann

Patrick Fortmann. Autopsie von Revolution und Restauration: Georg Buchner und die politische Imagination. Berlin: Rombach, 2013. 354 pp.The extensive bibliography of contemporary Buchner research provided by the author of this volume leads the reader to ask: what more is there to say about Buchner, given the scholarly attention already devoted to the relatively small number of literary works produced before the poet's untimely death in 1837? Fortmann's Autopsie suggests that there is quite a bit, if one subjects the texts to a detailed theoretical analysis. The book is an expanded version of a chapter from his Harvard dissertation, informed by his reading of the French theorist Jacques Ranciere, and focuses on the distinction between Politik and dem Politischen. The former term is closely tied to the notion of Polizei, the representatives of the established order and regulators of power relationships in society; das Politische, on the other hand, stands as an implicit challenge to these relationships, revealing inner conflicts and posing challenges to the established order. Fortmann is interested in the role played by Asthetik or Sinnlichkeit in the mediation, reshaping, or criticism of Politik, and Buchner's works serve as an ideal instance of how these relationships functioned in the period between the end of the French Revolution and the late 1830s.Fortmann's book focuses primarily on three of Buchner's texts: Der hessische Landbote, Dantons Tod, and Leonce und Lena. Beginning with a brief summary of his theoretical approach, in the second chapter the author provides a historical and literary background. His detailed analysis of each of these texts in subsequent chapters traces Buchner's efforts to portray the tensions and contradictions underlying the seemingly stable political/social order, tensions that point via the aesthetic imagination to alternative or future political realities. In Buchner's literary imagination, Politik ceases to be limited to mere governance, whether by the despots of the reactionary restoration or by the icons of the revolution; it takes on a theatrical function that can undermine or redefine contemporary politics. Das Politische is thereby unchained and allowed to function within Politik. Fortmann muses on the guillotine as both a positive and a negative mechanism of transformation, as well as on the continual reconceptualizations of the republic and the possibilities for its stabilization and perpetuation. He concludes with reflections on the political functions of literature and the effectiveness of the aesthetic mobilization attempted by Buchner. …

Forma, informe, formação: considerações sobre o saber morfológico em Georges Didi-Huberman

O teórico francês Georges Didi-Huberman desenvolve um campo lexical que atrela a ideia de imagem à forma, à plasticidade, ao ritmo e à força de sua aparição. Todo um vocabulário morfológico é desenvolvido a partir da observação tanto de espécies animais, como as falenas, quanto do reino vegetal, e mesmo de obras artísticas teoricamente destituídas de dinamismo, como as do minimalismo. Diante da extrema variabilidade de matérias sobre as quais a teoria didi-hubermaniana se detém, o presente artigo visa investigar as condições em que a noção de forma se apresenta como operador conceitual, de modo a compreender os outros paradigmas da arte que o crítico francês elabora, apoiado em uma reformulação do conceito. Enviado em: 18 de outubro de 2016.Aprovado em: 01 de dezembro de 2016.

Narrative between Action and Transformation: A. J. Greimas' Narratological Models

The French theorist A. J. Greimas, inspired by such studies, is considered one of the founders of Narratology through the construction of models of analysis where these invariables would be centered in the subject of the narrative and based on the action and the transformation of them. The objective of the present essay is to analyze the ideas of Greimas, as well as to look for the logical mechanism that resides in each model.

Phenomena of photography in the context of the methodology of poststructuralism

Phenomena of photography in the context of the methodology of poststructuralism

Afterword

At certain points in history, certain words take on a positive aura that makes it difficult to openly express dissenting or sceptical views about the objects, processes, or qualities they denote. Right now, social has this aura. This word’s role as a modifier to make the noun after it refer to society and other kinds of human association—as in social law and social life—emerged at the end of the sixteenth century (OED ‘social’ adj. 5a, 5b). Most recently, the word has attached itself to a relatively new word, media—first used to denote mass communication in 1927 (OED ‘media’ n.2)—to denote a new kind of technology of communication. Whereas the ordinary media provided only one-way, one-to-many, communication, the social media allow ‘users to create and share content or to participate in social networking’ (OED ‘social’ Special Uses S2 ‘social media’ n.). In the field of textual editing, being social is not so new. The French theorists of the 1960s Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault considered authorship itself to be an inherently social phenomenon. For Barthes, texts were not spun like webs out of the solitary minds of lone individuals but rather woven together from existing ideas and sayings: ‘The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 146). According to Foucault, we are thinking about creativity itself in the wrong way if we concern ourselves too much with authors as persons, for in truth we as readers collectively construct the author to suit what we want to do with the text. In this view, we have to speak not of the author but of the author function that we use to constrain the range of interpretations that a text may be subject to. These reader-constructed authors become ‘the principle of thrift in the proliferation of meaning’ (Foucault, 1994, p. 352), saving us from outlandish misinterpretations. In their original French-language publications—much translated and anthologized—Foucault’s essay was a direct response to Barthes’s, and their shared aim was a thorough transvaluation of the notion of authorship by socializing it (Barthes, 1968; Foucault, 1969).

Architecture in Its Own Shadow

Those who consider themselves architects disapprove of the statements about destruction of the subject of architectural culture, profession and of the subject of architectural theory. At the same time, a deep crisis of both theory and practice is obvious. When theorists of architecture of the 20th and early 21st centuries turned to the subjects external to architecture – sociology, psychology, semiotics, ecology, post-structuralist criticism, etc., instead of enriching and renovating the architectural theory, the results were just the opposite. A brand new and independent paradigm of architecture is needed. It should contain three parts specific by their logical-subject nature: ontology of architecture, methodology of architectural thought and axiology of architectural thought.

Issue of Identity and Boundary between Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching

This paper examines debate in applied linguistics stemming from disputes surrounding its nature, scope and relationship with theoretical linguistics and English language teaching. The paper inspects radical ideas on applied linguistics and the discipline’s connection with linguistics and English language teaching, through an examination of conflicting definitions and contemporary research interests. Set against the theoretical frames of post-modernist and post structuralist perspectives, the discipline of applied linguistics presents a wide spectrum of perceptions and models, ranging from the restricted to the open field. The current crisis of identity and boundary between applied linguistics and English language teaching is traced to historical and conceptual premises. The historical development of the field and the main changes affecting its focus are correlated with the global spread of English and the ensuing concerns. The conceptual premise is addressed with respect to the changes in the linguistic theory. The position adopted in this paper is that applied linguistics is not an extension of English language teaching. Applied linguistics incorporates English language teaching or language in the classroom perspective and with the same clarity and precision offers through disciplined and methodological enquiry a macro frame that incorporates all aspects of language in communication. The paper concludes with the proposition of two frames in applied linguistics, each with specific concerns and possibilities: a macro applied linguistic frame which considers applications of language within the large area of interdisciplinary language-related studies, and a micro applied linguistic frame which considers pedagogic and educational concerns and is reserved for ELT.

Reaching for Archive Fever: A Tall Tale about Queer ‘Made in France’

This article reflects on the history of queer theory's entry in France by turning to two critics, Marie-Hélène Bourcier and François Cusset, who claim to have introduced the term ‘queer’ into French culture. It analogizes these critics' claims as a battle of the ‘archons’ as conceptualized by Derrida in Archive Fever. Archons police official memory and search for the ‘authentic’ origins of the event, practice or discipline that is archived. The Derridean formulation allows me to consider the narrative that Bourcier and Cusset assert, particularly that concerning the status of French theory as the progenitor of queer theory, in terms of the authority of the archon. The Derridean analogy also enables me to consider what gets written out of each account in the archontic endeavour. The article finally turns to the subject of the possibility of a more disruptively queer archive by arguing for a re-evaluation of Bourcier's earlier collaborative work. I argue that what Derrida pinpointed as an anarchivizing ‘fever’ that threatens stable, exclusionary memory may be detected in this early work.

The legacies and trajectories of poststructuralism

The legacies and trajectories of poststructuralism

The Influence of the Painting Tradition on Derek Jarman’s Films

The article aims at revealing intertextual references to paintings woven into feature films by the British director Derek Jarman (1942-1994). The author explores various manifestations of intertextuality from direct citations to reminiscences, which allow to emphasize the continuity of film-directors work, the connection of its aesthetics, composition, film mood with the original fine art source paintings. The target is to enhance the emotional impact on the viewer. The concept of intertextuality has undergone significant changes since its introduction to the research usage by the poststructuralist French theorist Julia Kristeva. This term has gone beyond the literary discourse and has begun to be used in the analysis of all the semiotic formations to describe the interaction of both verbal and non-verbal texts. In this regard, it is important to analyze and reveal the intertextual references to paintings woven into feature films made by a British director Derek Jarman whose works are insufficiently explored in Russia. Intertextuality is a characteristic feature of Jarmans creative style that seeks to blur the clear distinction between painting and cinema. Analysing the influence of such artists as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Piero della Francesca, William Turner, Ford Madox Brown, Thomas Eakins and Francis Bacon on Jarman, the author reveals the interconnection between the directors aesthetics, composition, mood, light and shade frame modeling and the original paintings. Derek Jarman uses a variety of intertextual references from direct citations to reminiscences affecting the visual associative row of the audience and their film perception, emphasizing the continuity of his work. The intertextual references seek to enhance the emotional impact on the viewers, to recreate the mood of the epoch and its atmosphere, to aggravate the tragedy of the situation. The metaphors and allusions greatly expand the spatial and temporal characteristics of Jarmans films. Numerous intertransitions from one semiotic system to another fill his films with inner dialogue and strengthen semantic polyphony of meaning.

Issue of Identity and Boundary between Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching

This paper examines debate in applied linguistics stemming from disputes surrounding its nature, scope and relationship with theoretical linguistics and English language teaching. The paper inspects radical ideas on applied linguistics and the discipline’s connection with linguistics and English language teaching, through an examination of conflicting definitions and contemporary research interests. Set against the theoretical frames of post-modernist and post structuralist perspectives, the discipline of applied linguistics presents a wide spectrum of perceptions and models, ranging from the restricted to the open field. The current crisis of identity and boundary between applied linguistics and English language teaching is traced to historical and conceptual premises. The historical development of the field and the main changes affecting its focus are correlated with the global spread of English and the ensuing concerns. The conceptual premise is addressed with respect to the changes in the linguistic theory. The position adopted in this paper is that applied linguistics is not an extension of English language teaching. Applied linguistics incorporates English language teaching or language in the classroom perspective and with the same clarity and precision offers through disciplined and methodological enquiry a macro frame that incorporates all aspects of language in communication. The paper concludes with the proposition of two frames in applied linguistics, each with specific concerns and possibilities: a macro applied linguistic frame which considers applications of language within the large area of interdisciplinary language-related studies, and a micro applied linguistic frame which considers pedagogic and educational concerns and is reserved for ELT.

The epistemic, the cognitive, the human: a commentary on the mathematical working space approach

This article is a commentary on the mathematical working space (MWS) approach and draws on the articles contained in this ZDM issue. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part I discuss the place of the MWS approach among the French theories of didactique des mathematiques. In the second part I outline what I think are the central ideas of the MWS approach. I conclude the article with a sketch of what seems to me to be its accomplishments and challenges, focusing mainly on the epistemological and cognitive stances that the MWS approach conveys in order to elucidate the manner in which this approach theoretically assumes that things are known and learned.

Ambivalence of official statistics: some theoretical-methodological notes

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to advance some theoretical-methodological propositions about analyzing official statistics in the contemporary world: it is going to underline how the category of ambivalence is important in order to improve our comprehension of official statistics. In the second section, we will give a brief overview on contemporary sociology of official statistics. In the third and fourth sections, the focus will be on the ‘French theory’ – probably, the hegemonic current now – starting from Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the State, one of the most important issues in order to better understand this perspective. This analysis points out as French theory considers just rationalization processes. Control, dominion as well as alienation are the main subjects, a set of ideas based on a structuralist point of view which does not actually consider the possibility of social change. The ambivalence (or social contradiction in Marxism terms) of every sociopolitical process – including the making and using of official statistics – is systematically underestimated. Beyond the dominion there is the subject and the conflict in a shared field of historicity: ethic and social claims need official statistics too. Eventually, the fifth section will focus on our theoretical-methodological proposal based on re-embedding the category of the statistical system in a more complex vision where ambivalence is essential.

The Dispossession of Character

The Dispossession of Character

Book Review: Madeleine Fagan, Ethics and Politics After Poststructuralism: Levinas, Derrida and Nancy

Book Review: Madeleine Fagan, <i>Ethics and Politics After Poststructuralism: Levinas, Derrida and Nancy</i>

On “Imposed Interpretation” in Literary Criticism: The Issue of “French Theory”

This paper is a response to what Professor Zhang Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) terms as “imposed interpretation.” In his article “On Imposed Interpretation,” Professor Zhang sees imposed interpretation as a fundamental feature and basic defect of contemporary Western literary criticism. The author analyzes some of the interpretations, as criticized by Professor Zhang, imposed on some literary classics by feminist, eco-critical, psychoanalytical, structuralist and deconstructivist methods. She reviews the sources and the limitations of the so-called “French theory” in cultural studies courses in American universities before raising the critical practice she endorses: a synthesizing critical methodology that is based on the specificity of the text, uses multiple applicable theories in relation to the socio-temporal context in which the work was produced, while bearing in mind the author’s intentions and the reader’s active participation. Through rigorous textual analysis, literary criticism can identify some new perspectives offered by the text which enable construction of the meaning of the text and of life. This can highlight the functions of literary reading in enriching people’s lives and enhancing the role of reality and man’s spiritual realm.

Modernism under Review: Fredric Jameson's The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act (1981)

Fredric Jameson's seminal text The Political Unconscious is one of the great works of post-war critical theory. It launched a materialist cultural studies in American university humanities departments and beyond. Its mandarin Marxism adapted the ‘Late Marxism’ of Lukács, Bloch, Adorno and others for the academy and for the post-modern era, focussing on Marxism's singular capacity to offer a total reading of an artwork. It also implicitly faces Marxism off against a wave of French theory that was new when the book was written, especially those theories of power being developed by Foucault and Deleuze. This essay makes the case that Jameson's book gives us a Deleuzian Marxism avant la lettre, and that the book should be reread with care now, when eco-critique has embraced a Deleuzianism that needs the heft of a class politics.