many good things to be found in the ruins, in the collapse of the older explanatory systems,
in the splintering of the masterly overview and the totalizing aspiration"
(Hiding 225)
From my first reading of a paper that discussed Post structuralism, I was engaged. I knew the movement had happened, was happening. I appreciated the idea of structures falling, they were. As a writer, I was keenly interested in the contribution the movement made to literature; and there was Derrida telling me exactly what I wanted to know.
When I first logged on to social media, I was eager to tell the online world about Post structuralism's ability to free the writer and the reader from past, structured requirements/strictures. When I search for authors of papers outside the academic sector, I found no one proclaiming my discoveries concerning Post structuralism to the general US writing, and reading, communities.
I took the task upon myself and produced in my blog, almost, the first descriptions of Post structuralism to the public (Purdue University's online presence prior to mine contained a concise history and definition of the movement). I described what can be done with the movement's tenets within writing or poetry styles. For two years, when a search of Post structuralism was made my name as an individual blogger appeared first. Then, things changed.
The debate between literary academics and others heated up. Words were clarified and parsed. Dawn broke and academia realized that positive advocation of Post structuralism would remove their control over a growing and very lucrative business of providing a certificate that makes an individual a bona fide writer or poet with passes to literary prizes, paying journals, and a place in line for an academic career.
To this day, the ancient literary structures remain. Poets are admonished for crafting any poem outside the left-margined-12 pt.-Times New Roman structure. Most writers still comply to the traditional. In writing poetry, the lines are allowed to shift a little in a oh-let-the-kids-have-fun suspension of regulations. Word processors, presses, and instructors have not caught up with this century's needs in the creation of literature.
Subject matter is regulated, too. Watch out for the journal that writes a recipe for your submitted work. Don't lose your style to them.
Tonight, I searched for entries concerning this topic: reactions to Post structuralism 2015. I discovered jokes, cartoons, short articles pooh-poohing Post structuralism, its effects and contributions, and a U-Tube entry delivered by a sadly uninformed individual. All those entries' agendas were not clear. Mine is obvious. I want the ability to submit my work as I created it, not as it must be structured for someone or something else--that's including punctuation. Things change, old systems rearrange or fall.
Post structural poetry and writing will continue to be created.
--e. smith sleigh, poet and writer
http://bit.ly/iionKS
Poetry Books:
An American Still Life
These Things are a One Thing
Our Nature: External Landscapes
This Nature: Internal Landscapes
Musings from the Fault Line after Dark