Movement in literary criticism and philosophy begun in France in the late 1960s.
Drawing upon the linguistic theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss (see structuralism ), and the deconstructionist theories of Jacques Derrida (see deconstruction ), it held that language is not a transparent medium that connects one directly with a "truth" or "reality" outside it but rather a structure or code, whose parts derive their meaning from their contrast with one another and not from any connection with an outside world. Writers associated with the movement include {{link=Barthes, Roland G%C3%A9rard">Roland Barthes , Jacques Lacan , Julia Kristeva , and Michel Foucault .