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Structuralism

Structuralism is a method of analysis that views elements in a work or cultural product only in terms of their relationship to the overarching system or structure. It aims to uncover the deep structures that underlie all of human activity and cultural production. Key figures who developed structuralist theories include Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Roland Barthes. Saussure was influential for introducing the concepts of the signifier and signified and viewing language as a system of signs. Lévi-Strauss applied structuralism to the study of myth. He broke myths down into their smallest constituent parts called mythemes to study their patterns and relationships. Structuralism influenced various fields like anthrop

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555 views

Structuralism

Structuralism is a method of analysis that views elements in a work or cultural product only in terms of their relationship to the overarching system or structure. It aims to uncover the deep structures that underlie all of human activity and cultural production. Key figures who developed structuralist theories include Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Roland Barthes. Saussure was influential for introducing the concepts of the signifier and signified and viewing language as a system of signs. Lévi-Strauss applied structuralism to the study of myth. He broke myths down into their smallest constituent parts called mythemes to study their patterns and relationships. Structuralism influenced various fields like anthrop

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Structuralism

杨品娜
What is Structuralism?
• A system in which each element in a group
can only be understood by its relation to other
elements as part of a larger structure
Major figures
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Roman Jakobson
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
• A. J. Greimas
• Jonathan Culler
• Roland Barthes
• Vladimir Propp
• Terence Hawkes.
Hawkes:

• Structuralism is a way of thinking about the


world which is predominantly concerned with the
perceptions and description of structures.
• At its simplest, structuralism claims that the
nature of every element in any given situation has
no significance by itself, and in fact is determined
by all the other elements involved in that
situation.
• The full significance of any entity cannot be
perceived unless and until it is integrated into
the structure of which it forms a part
Ferdinand de Saussure
• 1857-1913

• Credited with founding


Semiotics(符号学)(he
called it Semiology)

• Class notes compiled


into the book Course
in General Linguistics
《普通语言学教程》
Saussure's definition of Language
• All language is made of signs

• By putting together signs it is possible to


create complex messages

• Each sign has two parts: signifier and


signified
Sign part1: signifier（意指）
• “The psychological imprint of the sound,
the impression it makes on our senses”

• ex: thinking in your head

• Also known as: “sound-image”


Sign part 2: signified(所指)
• The concept or essence of something

• What the signifier is referring to(the


sound ”dog” refer to the concept of a dog)
The Language is made of signs
The nature of signs→Arbitrary
• Meaning: there's no natural connection
between signifier and signified

• Because of the arbitrariness, signs must be


agreed on by a goup of people in order to be
effective

• Therefore, some languages have words for


concepts that don't exist in other
languages(incarnadine)
The Linear Nature of the Signifer
• Signs are understandable synchronically(共
时性)
 Culturally at a given moment in time without
regard to history

• Signs are understandable diachronically(历时


性)
 Traces chronology of a sign
Language is understandable as a
system of signs
• An ordered seriers of signs that makes sense
• The signs make sense because of their relation to other
signs
• Meaning created through relationships between signs
• binary opposition(二元对立) : means by which the units of
language have value or meaning; each unit is defined in
reciprocal determination with another term, as in binary code.
It is not a contradictory relation but a structural,
complementary one.
• No signs exists in isolation
• parole(言语): the individual utterance
• langue( 语 言 ): the language regulated by
linguistic ”rules” or conventions to be observed
by every member of the commnity
• Semiotics:the study of meaning-making, the study
of sign processes and meaningful communication.
 Not literary theiry but literature subfield
of semiotics
 Explains how any field of interrelated objects
becomes intelligible as that field: i.e.
Darwinian semiotics, Literary semiotics
From liguistics to all field
• So then Saussure said somebody ought to study how everything
, not just language, is made up of signs.
• Writers write and readers read without consciously knowing
or intending much of what they're doing .
• Saussure said, since that will lead to understanding the laws that
actually provide the meaning that most people incorrectly
believe comes from the signs themselves.
• Through the first half of the twentieth century until the late 60s,
all kinds of critics took up this challenge and began to track down
the structural laws that organized meanings for such fields as
anthropology , psychology , history , art, sociology , and
philosophy , as wel l as linguistics and literature.
Jackbson:
• Structuralists, in fact, tend not to be too
concerned about content, but with the processes
that create meaning .
Lévi -Strauss
• What were the laws and patterns that were
operating behind the scenes to make the literary
work happen?
The Structural Study of Myth
(Levi-Strauss)
• method:
 breaking down its story into the
shortest possible sentences
 writng each sentence on an index card bearing
a number correpsonding to the unfolding of the
story
 each card(gross constituent unit) then
will show that a certain function is linked
to (a relation) a given subject
Key Term
• Mythemes - a term developed by Lévi-Strauss--
mythemes are the smallest component parts of a
myth.
• By breaking up myths into mythemes, those
structures (mythemes) may be studied
chronologically (~ diacrhonically) or
synchronically/relationally.
Application in Oedipus myth
• column 1:overratng of blood relations
• column 2: underrating of blood relations
• column 3:denial of the autochthonous origin of man
• column 4:the persistence of the
autochthonous origins of mankind

• orignal problem:born from one or born from two


The Strucural Activity(Roland Barthes)

• “structural man takes the real, decomposes it,


then recomposes it”
• What emerges from such a reconfiguration
of constituent features is a virtual object
(simulacrum)recomposing the “real” one(s)
• “the goal of all structuralist activity is to
reconstruct an “object” in such way as to manifest
thereby the rules of funcitoning of the object(visual
object)”
Structuralist narratology
• A form of structuralism espoused by Vladimir
Propp, Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes, and
Gerard Genette that illustrates how a story's
meaning develops from its overall structure
(its langue) rather than from each individual
story's isolated theme.
• To ascertain a text's meaning, narratologists
emphasize grammatical elements such as verb
tenses and the relationships and configurations
of figures of speech within the story"
Review: key terms
• signs/ signifer/ signified
• binary opposition
• sychronical study/diachronical study
• parole/langue
• Mythemes
• gross constituent unit
• simulacrum
Influence
• Came from France to US in early 1960s

• Only floourished for couple of years until


Derrida in1966

• Inspired trends in literary theory from Marxism


to Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Race/Ethncity to
Semiotics
Thanks for
listening

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