Postmodernism Key Words part 6

Normativity – Everyone from the moment of birth enters a "ready"  society, as some kind of objective reality. Growing biologically, the subject changes socially, and he voluntarily or not encounters certain rules,conditions, recommendations, permits, demands, prohibitions and restrictions – called social norms. These social norms give a person an idea of what is considered "right" or "wrong" in activities and behavior of individuals.

Binary Opposition – a universal device of rational portrayal of the world, where two opposing concepts are simultaneously considered:  one concept asserts some sort quality, and the other - denies. The principle of binarism was sharply criticized by representatives of poststructuralism. In his work "Difference and repetition" Gilles Deleuze rethinks the concept of "difference". According to his statement, one cannot find a criterion by which to distinguish one phenomenon from another. 

Deconstruction – one of the basic concepts of poststructuralism and postmodernism, that means a departure from the traditional laws of form and reading in relation to a specific text, destruction of a stereotype and inclusion into a new context.

Différance – One of the basic concepts of Jacques Derrida's philosophy. Derrida puts in the center of philosophical reflection a difference, that involves discussion, the ability of a person to think together with an opponent, understanding and taking into account a different position, point of view. But, Derrida is sure that the other person, with all his differences, for all of us will remain inaccessible and impenetrable.

Reinscribe – to reestablish or rename in a new and especially stronger form or context.

Cognitive dissonance – it represents a special state during which a person feels a mental discomfort caused by the collision of conflicting beliefs, ideas, reactions , in respect of a certain phenomenon or object in his mind.

Judith Butler – Butler said that what we consider to be normal gender behavior of men and women is a kind of politically conditioned construct, that is set by society through repeated practices(verbal and physical). Men and women are instructed to behave in a certain way. In addition, there is such a thing as heteronormativity - the canon of gender, sexual relations. The canon is that there is a man and there is a woman, their roles are strictly defined: man must be such and such and such, and woman has to have femininity and traditional female virtues. Butler saw the situation when all subjects from birth, from childhood, they are educated to be either such and such men, or such and such  women, and this in most cases is determined by the fact of birth. Butler saw this as a political problem.