Hyphology

In 1976, French philosopher Jacques Derrida published two books challenging the reigning literary and scientific methodology of the time: structuralism. Few scientists would continue to practice it afterward. But is structuralism really dead and gone? This book answers in the negative, with a caveat. Instead of dismissing Derrida’s criticisms, Hyphology accepts the most invidious ones and rethinks structuralism for the twenty-first century. Tracing structuralism and its genesis through Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Gilbert Simondon, Gilles Deleuze, and others, this book argues for a new kind of structuralism that admits the ephemerality and contingency of meaning. Hyphos, the tissue or spider’s web, perfectly represents this aspect of meaning. To this end, any new structuralism will have to be called a hyphology.