Abstract:
In recent years, questions like these have often been posed in a more or
less polemical manner. They should be reconsidered in a more sober,
nuanced way. In academia, they are of far more than merely historical interest since unlike the hairstyles, clothing fashions, body
culture, and living spaces from the late 1960s, many of the theories
from that period are still regarded as contemporary. Above all, this
applies to poststructuralism as a collective name for the impulses
of what is often called French theory, which have set the tone in the
humanities for two generations. However, the problem with the
continuing topicality of poststructuralist and postmodern ways of
thinking is that many of their elements are becoming virulent under
completely changed political circumstances.