Structuralism and the Logic of Dissent : Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, Lacan

"Structuralism and the Logic of Dissent is a fascinating and lucid exploration of the seminal writings of four eminent French post-structuralists that sheds new light on influential theoretical texts. Eve Tavor Bannet discusses the work of Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan as coherent philosophical fictions, showing their contradictory political, social, and pedagogical implications and their complex historicity. "Placing these writings within various French contexts, Tavor Bannet demonstrates how each of these theorists reacted against the pervasive authoritarian and bureaucratic systems of post-World War II France. Working within an environment of dissent, they created alternative structures of language and thought. Their innovative and challenging ideas were widely imitated and repeated by intellectuals, creating new forms of academic conformity and constraint. Tavor Bannet compares the current situation of university intellectuals in France with that of their counterparts in England and the United states; in the process, she raises important questions about intellectual and academic responsibility."