# French Theory > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/French_Theory > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/French_Theory.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Theory > Source revision: 1332856568 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Postmodern theoretical movement}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} '''''French Theory''''' refers to a body of [postmodern](/source/Postmodernism) [philosophical](/source/Postmodern_philosophy), [literary](/source/Postmodern_literature), and [social](/source/Sociology) theories. The term emerged in American universities and research work in the 1970s, from a [school of thought](/source/school_of_thought) born in the 1960s in France, and owes much, in terms of dissemination, to the journal ''[Semiotext(e)](/source/Semiotext(e))'', founded by [Sylvère Lotringer](/source/Sylv%C3%A8re_Lotringer) in 1974 at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University).Hedi El Kholti, [Chris Kraus](/source/Chris_Kraus_(American_writer)), Sylvère Lotringer (dir.), ''The History of Semiotext(e)'', Los Angeles, Whitney Biennial Catalogue / Whitney Museum of Art (New York), 2014. ''French Theory'' met with particular enthusiasm in American [humanities](/source/humanities) departments from the 1980s, where it contributed to the emergence of [cultural studies](/source/cultural_studies), [gender studies](/source/gender_studies), and [postcolonial studies](/source/Postcolonialism). ''French Theory'' has also had a strong influence in the arts and in the activism world. The label "French theory" was applied in American academic research in the late 1970s; the term "[post-structuralism](/source/post-structuralism)" was used in relation to intellectual history, and "French postmodernism" was common among its detractors.{{Harvnb|Cusset|2008|p=8}} "It was necessary then to carry out several mediating operations in order to produce a new political discourse on the basis of these French texts. The first of these operations ... is one that gradually made it possible to unite the various authors concerned into one homogeneous entity ... It remained only to dub the final package 'French theory' (following the appellation that appeared in the second half of the 1970s), 'poststructuralism' (for the purposes of intellectual history), or else 'French postmodernism,' according to the term most often used by its detractors." At the same time as the impact of the work of these French authors gave birth in the United States to an intellectual movement called French Theory, the names of the French philosophers involved were denigrated in France as "libidinal"{{definition needed|date=October 2025}} and [leftist](/source/leftist). In the U.S., the theory faced considerable reluctancy and resistance, highlighted by the critiques of [Camille Paglia](/source/Camille_Paglia) and [Alan Sokal](/source/Alan_Sokal) (cf. [Sokal affair](/source/Sokal_affair) and ''[Fashionable Nonsense](/source/Fashionable_Nonsense)'', co-authored with [Jean Bricmont](/source/Jean_Bricmont)). [Intellectual historian](/source/Intellectual_history) [François Cusset](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Cusset) argued that French Theory's recognition in North America owed more to its negative invocation in a political context by its detractors, than to its supporters in "a handful of departments of English and comparative literature."{{sfn|Cusset|2008|pp=xvii–xviii}} == Name == {{Unreferenced|section|date=May 2025}} According to Cusset, the grouping of these French authors in the US under the term French Theory appears highly artificial in France. This gathering in the same philosophical school erases the singularities and strong theoretical divergences of their respective works; their only similarities are their similar critical approaches: * the critique of the [subject](/source/Subject_(philosophy)), of representation and of historical continuity; * rereading of [Freud](/source/Sigmund_Freud), [Nietzsche](/source/Friedrich_Nietzsche) and [Heidegger](/source/Martin_Heidegger); * the criticism of the "critical" itself, that is, from the [German philosophical](/source/German_philosophy) tradition. French Theory was born from the conjunction of several factors in the U.S., including: * the "pre-existence" of intellectual or political currents, within American universities, whose theories were close or easily assimilated; * [Americanization](/source/Americanization), reorganization and de-contextualization of original French concepts; * the transmission of ideas through specific modes of publication (excerpts published in academic and alternative journals rather than full translations of the works); * the preponderance of cross-interviews between French authors (giving the impression of a homogeneous corpus); * translation difficulties.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} ==Major figures== Authors associated with this movement include, France: [Louis Althusser](/source/Louis_Althusser), [Jean Baudrillard](/source/Jean_Baudrillard), [Simone de Beauvoir](/source/Simone_de_Beauvoir), [Roland Barthes](/source/Roland_Barthes), [Hélène Cixous](/source/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Cixous), [Gilles Deleuze](/source/Gilles_Deleuze), [Jacques Derrida](/source/Jacques_Derrida), [Michel Foucault](/source/Michel_Foucault), [René Girard](/source/Ren%C3%A9_Girard), [Félix Guattari](/source/F%C3%A9lix_Guattari), [Luce Irigaray](/source/Luce_Irigaray), [Julia Kristeva](/source/Julia_Kristeva), [Jacques Lacan](/source/Jacques_Lacan), [Jean-François Lyotard](/source/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Lyotard), [Jacques Rancière](/source/Jacques_Ranci%C3%A8re), and [Monique Wittig](/source/Monique_Wittig); and in the US: [Judith Butler](/source/Judith_Butler), [Stanley Fish](/source/Stanley_Fish), [Donna Haraway](/source/Donna_Haraway), [Fredric Jameson](/source/Fredric_Jameson), [Avital Ronell](/source/Avital_Ronell), [Richard Rorty](/source/Richard_Rorty), [Edward Said](/source/Edward_Said), [Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick](/source/Eve_Kosofsky_Sedgwick), and [Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak](/source/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak).{{Sfn|Cusset|2008|pp=377–388}} == Legacy == In France, from the mid-1970s, French Theory gradually faded from an intellectual landscape marked by the disappointments (on the left) of the post-[May 68](/source/May_68) period. Strong media personalities under the title of the [New Philosophers](/source/New_Philosophers) led French debate towards various forms of struggle for rights and the conquest of the political apparatus for humanitarian ends. Intellectuals who claimed to be followers of [Foucault](/source/Michel_Foucault), [Deleuze](/source/Gilles_Deleuze), [Baudrillard](/source/Jean_Baudrillard), and others disappeared from the forefront as the academic community gradually lost interest in them.{{Cite journal|last=Sylvano Santini|title=La leçon de la French Theory|journal=Spirale: Arts • Lettres • Sciences Humaines|issue=195|pages=42–43|year=2004|url=http://www.erudit.org/culture/spirale1048177/spirale1057121/19465ac.pdf}}. It is paradoxically in this context that French Theory gained popularity in the US. In the 2000s, French Theory reappeared in France under the influence of translations of American works, taking different forms of accusatory questioning of the French model ([gender studies](/source/gender_studies), [post-colonial studies](/source/Postcolonialism), etc.), which pose the philosophical and political question of difference, power and the imposition of norms.{{Cite web |language=fr |title=Journée " Autour du livre de François Cusset French Theory " et des Cultural Studies |url=http://etudes.americaines.free.fr/TRANSATLANTICA/4/cusset.html |date=}} == References == === Citations === {{Reflist}} === Bibliography === * [Johannes Angermuller](/source/Johannes_Angermuller), ''Why There Is No Poststructuralism in France.'' ''The Making of an Intellectual Generation'', London, Bloomsbury, 2015. * Johannes Angermuller, ''The Field of Theory.'' ''Rise and decline of structuralism in France'', Paris, Hermann, 2013. * {{cite book|last=Cusset|first=François|author-link=François Cusset |title=French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States|publisher=[University of Minnesota Press](/source/University_of_Minnesota_Press)|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8166-4732-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlaXsouHl3UC|access-date=December 17, 2024}} * Mike Gane, ''French Social Theory'', ed. Sage (Baudrillard Studies), London, 2003. * [Sylvère Lotringer](/source/Sylv%C3%A8re_Lotringer) and Sande Cohen (eds.), ''French Theory in America'', New York, Routledge, 2001. * Francesca Manzari and Stéphane Lojkine, introductory course in French Theory, Aix-Marseille University, ALLSH Faculty, HBM6U03D, HBMU12, 2020 program: presentation and [https://utpictura18.univ-amu.fr/Lips/french_theory.php online] program. * Glyn Williams, ''French Discourse Analysis: The Method of Post Structuralism'', London, Routledge, 1999. === External links === * [http://www.erudit.org/culture/spirale1048177/spirale1057121/19465ac.pdf The lesson of French Theory] on [Erudit.org](/source/%C3%89rudit) Category:Continental philosophy Category:Postmodern theory --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [French Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Theory) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Theory?action=history)). 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