On 21 October 1966 Jacques Derrida delivers Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences at the Johns Hopkins symposium on structuralism in Baltimore. The lecture announces the decentering of structure and the free play of signs, and carries the French critique into the American university, where it will have its loudest career.
Tagged: Postmodernism
The Event
- Date
- 1966 (exact)
- Era
- The Structuralist Break; Standard periodization of postmodern history
- Location
- Baltimore; today Baltimore, Maryland
- Traditions
- Postmodernism
- Streams
- Postmodernism
- Key figures
- Jacques Derrida
- Key texts
- Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Primary Sources
- Derrida, Jacques. Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences. Lecture, Johns Hopkins University, 21 October 1966.
Secondary Sources
- Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London: Routledge, 1995.
- Hassan, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Provenance: HIST-1436; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
Related on This Site
History Event
Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus
1972
History Event
Derrida's Of Grammatology
1967
History Event
Foucault's Discipline and Punish
1975
History Event
Foucault's The Order of Things
1966
History Event
Hassan's The Dismemberment of Orpheus
1971
History Event
Jencks's The Language of Post-Modern Architecture
1977
History Event
Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition
1979
World View
Postmodernism
Postmodernism doubts every grand story that claims to explain everything; it treats truth as shaped by language, culture, and power rather than simply discovered.