In Beginning Theory, Peter Barry compares structuralism and post-structuralism in four categories. The two schools of literary criticism deny a transcendent God or truth. That’s a point of similarity. The four differences in Barry’s description correspond to the following four points of the covenant.
HIERARCHY: Structuralism and Post-structuralism disagree about which discipline should give literary criticism its marching orders. Structuralism favors linguistics, while Post-structuralism prefers philosophy.
ETHICS: Structuralism attempts to analyze texts with scientific rigor. Structuralist criticism privileges objectivity and orderliness. Post-structuralism is openly emotional, and its criticism focuses on language’s materiality. In legal terms, structuralism prefers statutes, while post-structuralists prefer case-laws.
SANCTIONS: While Structuralists maintain that language creates reality, they insist that reality is orderly. Language is a blessing. Post-structuralists doubt that language is coherent. We are trapped in language, and it is a curse.
SUCCESSION: Structuralism says it offers freedom. If we recognized mediated structures of reality, we can create more reliable ones. Post-structuralism offers revolution. When we examine the tenets of Western Civilization like language and reason, we discover they are make matters worse.
Experiments in Criticism 