English Studies, poststructuralism, and radicalism

This dissertation examines the flaws of poststructuralist theory and practice in English Studies. Poststructuralism has produced, and continues to produce, controversy in the academy and in the popular press. What has become known as the "rise of theory" in the humanities is, for the most part, the rise of poststructuralism. Poststructuralism is an important but flawed development in academe, and it demands close analysis. Therefore, this dissertation examines the problems to which poststructuralism leads: impasses in literary criticism, compositional theory and practice, and ethics. These impasses can be avoided by a more coherent theory of signification and ethics than that provided by poststructuralism.; Another issue in poststructuralism is its aspiration to radicalism. Despite radical rhetoric, the radicalism of poststructuralism is inadequate. Poststructuralism can offer few productive arguments about the wide realm of day to day human affairs, and its radicalism is therefore empty.; In response to the weaknesses of poststructuralism's account of language, I will employ arguments primarily from Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Rhetoric, Kenneth Burke, and George Lakoff. Secondary sources include arguments by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Benjamin Lee Whorf. These writers will help me propose a more coherent account of language and ethics than that offered by poststructuralism. In addition, I will offer a more coherent approach to radicalism, employing arguments primarily from Aristotle, George Lakoff, and Noam Chomsky.