The Poststructuralist Critique Of Othering

Abstract

The process of othering divests the Other from virtues of pride, dignity, and nobility. The Other is mentally classified as not one of us and less human. The concept of othering can be looked upon as based on structural binaries. This is problematic, however, because the binary opposition fails to perceive the power embedded in this opposition. The poststructuralist critique of the structural binary of opposition liberates the multiplicity of forces and differences that the structuralist opposition reduces to a mere dyad. Nietzsche, the precursor to poststructuralism, deconstructs the notion of “good”, “noble”, and “truth” in this context. Derrida’s deconstructive approach also offers insight that the privilege or value attached to the othering agency is only culturally inherited prejudice based on pre judgement.