Age of Structuralism

<p>Structuralism began in linguistics and was enlarged by Claude Levi-Strauss into a new way of thinking that views our world as consisting of relationships between structures we create rather than of objective realities. <em>The Age of Structuralism</em> examines the work of seven writers who either expanded upon or reacted against Levi-Strauss.</p><p>In a panoramic overview of the origins of deconstructionism and its critics Edith Kurzweil offers a lucid and penetrating portrait of the movement that dominated French intellectual life for much of the postwar era and which continues to influence the French intellectual milieu. She explains Levi-Strauss's strikingly original contributions then proceeds to illuminate the ideas of crusaders and critics. The key figures dealt with include: Louis Althusser who reinterpreted Marxism through a rereading of Marx's texts with the help of structuralist techniques; Henri Lefebvre who remained faithful to Marx's humanism and was one of the earliest and most vehement critics of structuralism; Paul Ricoeur whose phenomenology sought to reconcile ethical theory and intellectual pursuits; Alain Touraine a socialist whose sociology of political action led him to dismiss structuralist concerns; Jacques Lacan who criticized ego-oriented psychoanalytic theory and practice and whose own work emphasized linguistic structures in psychoanalysis; Roland Barthes whose literary criticism in its determination to reject all false notions and systems led to a highly idiosyncratic approach that drew upon all systems; and finally Michel Foucault whose social histories of deviance medicine psychology grammar language sexuality criminology have reexamined every facet of social theory.</p><p>Placing these major figures in the context of political historical and psychoanalytic currents of the time <em>The Age of Structuralism</em> is a commanding and far-reaching study of a decisive epoch in intellectual history. Kurzweil's new opening essay explains how these towering figures prefigured current emphasis on semiotics post-structuralism deconstruction and post-postmodernism. Kurt H. Wolff called it lucid splendid and unobtrusive when the book first appeared. It remains a central work in the appreciation of the French giants upon whose shoulders the new crop of thinkers expect to stand.</p>