How was Jacques Derrida connected to structuralism?

Jacques Derrida’s connection to structuralism is primarily defined by his role in moving beyond it, leading to the development of poststructuralism.

In the 1960s, Derrida’s work was initially engaged with the interdisciplinary structuralist movement, which sought to analyze cultural phenomena as systems of signs with underlying rules and structures. However, Derrida provided a critical analysis of major structuralist thinkers, including Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Michel Foucault.1

While structuralists attempted to develop "metalanguages" to describe sign systems, Derrida’s deconstruction challenged the possibility of creating such detached, scientific frameworks. By demonstrating that linguistic meaning is never fully present but is instead endlessly deferred through a chain of differences, Derrida undermined the structuralist goal of establishing a general science of meaning. Consequently, he was viewed as a leading figure in the transition to poststructuralism, a movement skeptical of the structuralist ambition to uncover fixed, objective structures within language and culture.213