"Opening with a disagreement between Lewis Carroll's Alice and Humpty Dumpty over the question of meaning, this Very Short Introduction traces the key arguments that have led postructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture." "While Catherine Belsey discusses such well-known figures as Barthes, Foucault, and Lacan, as well as Kristeva, Lyotard and Zizek, she also draws pertinent examples from literature, art, film, and popular culture, including Shakespeare's sonnets and Toni Morrison's Beloved, Titian and Baz Luhrmann, to explore the poststructuralist account of what it means to be a human being."--Jacket.