subject
subject, the subjectA term used in preference to alternatives such as ‘actor’ and ‘individual’ by writers in the structuralist tradition. Its use indicates a rejection of what such writers regard as the humanist assumptions carried by the alternative terms. More specifically, what the use of the term minimally indicates is a rejection of the idea that individual human beings are the sole originators of social relations. Whether or not its presence also indicates that subjects are simply the bearers of social relations, and/or the sole substance of sociality, varies from author to author. See also Althusser.
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