Drama Out of a Crisis? Poststructuralism and the Politics of Everyday Life

Time and again we have been told that poststructuralism is in crisis. Poststructuralism, we hear, is ontologically exhausted, epistemologically and normatively confused, and politically irrelevant to the contemporary economic and institutional conditions that have already domesticated, assimilated and recuperated it. While there is clearly merit and provocation in such critiques, for us, they underestimate the extent to which poststructuralist concepts can be transformed and made relevant to concerns we may have in our current political conjuncture. In order to counter those who would simply dismiss and depoliticise poststructuralist thought as crisis-ridden or politically outmoded, we will suggest that poststructuralism is a drama that we can productively participate in, here and now. Furthermore, we think this poststructuralist drama should be played out in the rough and tumble of everyday political life. There is what we will call a ‘politics of everyday life’ to be found in the poststructuralist archive, and the poststructuralist archive can be recast, revitalised and even transformed when placed into the light and life of the everyday.