1. I'd be lying to say Grossberg's criticisms of post-structuralism do not perturb me in some regards. By identifying it as a unified movement of intent, as many do, he necessarily misses the forest for the trees when analyzing this "tradition". What one fails to realize with this understanding of post-structuralism is that there was no unity. Many that we call post-structuralists actively resisted the title for a multitude of reasons and they often fought amongst themselves with different criticisms and articles. One only needs to look at Baudrillard's infamous Forget Foucault tract to see this plainly. Ironically, by categorizing these thinkers into a united demarcation is to fall into the very patterns those philosophers were attempting to elucidate and criticize. Our fetishism for names and definitions, our desire for succinctness is the very desire Grossberg plays out even in his brief critique by congealing them together into a united mass.
This brings me to my question. In what regard do we as theorist hold an obligation to respectfully address those who we are writing with or against? Grossberg, as well as us, can never go systematically through every thinkers system. However, there must be ways in which one can avoid the pitfalls of too broad of generalities.
2. My question tangentially follows from the first. Hall in his article on articulation states: "What I am concerned to show, now, is how current Marxist theorizing on these questions have begun, through their own internal critique of what earlier passed as 'classical' or orthodox Marxism, to rectify some of the weaknesses correctly pinpointed by the critics of reductionism" (Hall 317). For Hall here, as in many of his writings, there seems to be at the fore a desire to rework Marx and Marxism, to reread, add, subtract, extrapolate, etc. My question then is why do we as academics fixate on belonging to a tradition? Whether it be Marxism, Structuralism, Phenomenology, etc., why does the re-instigation not just of a theorist but of the associated tradition become a paramount focus for us?
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