Post Structuralism and After (Traditions in Social Theory)

This book offers an important and timely overview of structuralist, post-structuralist and postmodern theory, beginning with the intellectual developments of, and main assumptions and concepts in, the thought of Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Lacan and Althusser. It examines the shift from structuralism to post-structuralism and postmodernism, charting the critiques of classical structuralism and modernist thinking in the work of key writers such as Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Bauman and Lyotard. Issues of structure, agency and power are debated, as are questions around relativism and analytic method, making this a comprehensive and lively account of this key area of social theory.