"French thinkers such as Foucault and Derrida are often labelled as representatives of 'poststructuralism.'Yet such an intellectual movement is unknown in France, where these theorists were never perceived as an intellectual group or movement. By tracing the evolution of the French intellectual field after the war, this monograph places Theory in the social and historical contexts of its reception. It thus accounts for a particularly productive moment in French intellectual life which continues to inform the theoretical imaginary of our time."--Bloomsbury Publishing.