This book traces the key arguments that have led poststructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture. It draws on examples from across our culture to explain how poststructuralism explores the relationship between human beings, the world, and the practice of making and reproducing meanings.

Catherine Belsey was Fellow and Tutor at New Hall, Cambridge, from 1969 to 1975. She chaired the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University from 1988 to 2003. At the time of her death in February 2021, she was Professor Emeritus in English at Swansea University and Visiting Professor at the University of Derby.

• Preface by Neil Badmington


• 1: Creatures of difference


• 2: Difference and culture


• 3: The differed subject


• 4: Difference or truth?


• 5: Difference in the world


• 6: Dissent


• References


• Further reading


• Glossary


• Index