Poststructuralism 2 Practice and Conclusion Outline QA The

Poststructuralism 2: Practice and Conclusion

Outline ¨ Q&A ¨ The Purloined Letter as a “Signifier” ¨ Derrida in Context ¨ assignments

¨ Deconstruction: Q & A -- What is transcendental signified? Give an example and explain why. -- How does signified become (become inseparable from) a signifier? -- What does floating signifier mean and what does it mean to us? What are the traces we see in a sign such as “love”? ¨ Poststructuralism: -- How are traditional human foundations challenged? ¨ Postmodernism: -- What kinds of images are we surrounded by and why? Is the event of 陳俊生變裝秀 related? -- How is pastiche different from parody?

The Floating Signifier in “The Purloined Letter” ¨ Three roles= subject positions: [the blind], [the complacent seer], [the robber]; 1. Letter as the empty, slippery and floating signifier. 2. The role of the robber taken first by the minister, Dupin and then by Lacan as well as all the other subsequent critics.

The Floating Signifier in “The Purloined Letter” (2) The signifier passes through us & defines us. The second: complacent seer = have + have-not. The third position: discerning the situation and acts accordingly. This transcendent position of the robber is insecure. Lacan: “In playing the part of the one who hides, [the Minister] is obliged to don the role of the Queen. ” --feminine position

The Floating Signifier in “The Purloined Letter” (3) The letter as 1) Phallus; 2) fetish. 3) an empty sign. What do we make of it? For Lacan --children feel a permanent sense of lack after they get separated from the phallic mother. the need for fetishes. Derrida’s “framing” Lacan – Lacan forces “design” into “destiny. ” Letter is empty, replaced by facsimile, signed to show its “author-ity. ”

Derridian Deconstruction in Context Like New Critics, deconstructionists read closely to find out the contradictions and gaps in a text, but without reconstructing them back to a unity. 2. Like the other poststructuralisms and postmodernisms, it is Anti. Foundationalist & de-centering; 3. Like Foucault, D thinks that we are in language and are conditioned by its structure, polysemy and fluidity. Outside the language is the “abyss” of human existence. Unlike D, Foucault examines multiple discourses. 1.

Derridian Deconstruction in Context (2) 4. Other usages of “différance”: desired object is unattainable, constantly deferred and replaced; colonial mimicry disseminate/de-center colonial authority. 5. [// 中觀佛教（Madhyamika� 的消 解實體 and self-undoing] 6. “différance” and the need for temporary closure and political

Next week ¨ “Agostinho Neto” by Chinua Achebe (Antonio Agostinho Neto, the first president of independent Angola. President Neto was born in 1922 in Bengo province. In addition to his distinguished public service career as president of Angola, President Neto was also a physician, philosopher, and accomplished poet. Source http: //www. angola. org/news/mission/october 97/ne to. html ) ¨ Leon Damas – the French Giana poet supporting Negritude—a black consciousness movement.