What is structuralism? Book review: Smulyanskii, A. (2021), The Vanishing Theory. A book on key personalities of continental philosophy, Ripol klassik, Moscow, Russia

The article introduces readers to “Vanishing Theory”, a book by Russian philosopher Aleksandr Smulyanskii, which the author himself considers as a new Introduction into underestimated structuralist’s conceptions (M. Foucault, J. Lacan, J. Derrida), and also as a handbook (tutorial) for their timely and correct reception. The author of the review agrees with the main message of the publication in question – the imaginary opposite of structuralism/post-structuralism is unproductive, recalling the alternative name of the phenomenon: “generalized structuralism”. The reviewer draws attention to the original author’s analysis of the “secular” and “public” in the “Confession” by J.-J. Rousseau, formally associated with the Derrida method. In no way marked in the annotations for the publication, the specific features of the “Vanishing Theory” are explained by the fact that it is based on the material of the lectures given by the author. The reviewer believes that the perception of the book in question is complicated by the unexplained form of the author’s narration (speech, lecture, letter, book), the lack of references to the texts involved, and by reference to the stilted types of the current social and political agenda. Contrary to the objectivity of the author’s analysis, the publication is a “structuralism from the first person”. But in a way Smulyanskii shares both advantages and illusions of those authors, whose conceptions he would like to get rid of impoverishing receptions.

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