Grammatology - Structuralism and Post-structuralism

Structuralism and Post-structuralism

Most common forms of literary writing is structuralism and post-structuralism. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure was considered to be a key figure in structural approaches to language. Saussure writes, ‘Language and writing are two distinct systems of signs; the second exists for the sole purpose of representing the first.’ Peter Barry explains this well in his book, the Beginning Theory.

In the 1960s post-structuralism sprang into existence with Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, two of the major contributors to this movement. Barthes' writing has been described as interesting as one can see the transition of these two literary styles through comparing his earlier works with his later work. His early work is methodical and very structured in its delivery, Barthes' work then morphs into writing that has been described as random in sequence and unfocused, which is a key characteristics of post-structuralistic writing; Jacques Derrida published much work in the subject of literary theory but most were considered to be more philosophical then based on literary itself. However one of the most influential texts on post-structuralism is ‘Of Grammatology’, a book that Jacques Derrida wrote. This book had a famous slogan of ‘There is nothing outside the text’ and is today one of the most quoted lines when discussing Grammatology. This opinion of Derrida is quite different to that of Saussure who believes the meaning in words is outside the text.