Structuralism is a 1949 approach derived from linguistics. It attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex system of interrelated parts. Titchener invented the term structuralism. Saussure introduced Structuralism in Linguistics in his Course in General Linguistics (1916). Saussure believes that language is a system of signs constructed by convention. In Europe, Saussure influenced:
The Geneva School of Albert Sechehaye and Charles Bally,
The Prague linguistic circle,
The Copenhagen School of Louis Hjelmslev,
The Paris School of André Martinet and Algirdas Julien Greimas,
The Dutch school of Simon Dik.
Structuralism is a language which is a self-contained relational structure. The elements derive their existence and value from their distribution and oppositions in texts or discourse. The foundation of structural linguistics is
Sign: It, in turn, has two components.
"Signified": It s an idea or concept,
"Signifier": It is a means of expressing the signified.
The "sign", or a word, is the combined association of signifier and signified. When a sign is compared to other signs, its value can be determined.
For Example: When someone says the word "tree," the sound they make is the signifier, and the concept of a tree is the signified.
Structuralism emphasizes examining language as a dynamic system of interconnected elements. Poststructuralists are also credited with introducing several basic dimensions of semiotics. Poststructuralists have often used structural explanations to explain how language shapes our understanding of the world. Structuralism theorists and thinkers include:
Ferdinand de Saussure
Roman Jakobson
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Michel Foucault,
Jacques Derrida
Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser
Roland Barthes
Mikhail Bakhtin
Juri Lotman
Umberto Eco
Jacques Ehrmann
Northrop Frye
Jonathan Culler
The movement was widespread in anthropology, linguistics, and literary theory in the 1950s and 1960s and is widely regarded as influential today. According to structuralism, language is a system of signs and significations understandable only about each other and the system as a whole. Historically, structuralism challenged the idea that literary works reflected a given reality; rather, a text was constructed of linguistic conventions and placed among others. A structuralist critic analyzes a text by examining its underlying structures, for example, characterization or plot. Their objective was to demonstrate that these patterns were universal and could be used to draw general conclusions about both individual works and the systems that gave rise to them. A major advocate of structuralism was the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, as was Roman Jakobsen. There was some basis for Northrop Frye’s attempt to categorize Western literature by archetype in structuralist thought. In structuralist theory, language was considered a closed, stable system, replaced by poststructuralism in the late 1960s
Post-Structuralism:
Post-structuralism is a literary form of theory. It rejects the ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Common themes among them include:
The rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism
It interrogates the binary oppositions that constitute its structures.
It discards the idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed structures.
Post-Structuralist:
It implies that construct meaning from such an interpretation. One must (falsely) assume that these signs' definitions are valid and permanent. Writers whose works are often characterized as poststructuralists include:
Roland Barthes,
Jacques Derrida,
Michel Foucault,
Gilles Deleuze,
Jean Baudrillard
Pierre Bourdieu
Jean-François Lyotard
Julia Kristeva
Hélène Cixous
Luce Irigaray
Poststructuralism is a school of thought that opposes structuralism’s emphasis on frameworks and structures to obtain “truth.” As with deconstruction, poststructuralism emphasizes that meaning is unstable. As opposed to structuralism, which considered language a closed system, poststructuralism recognized an inevitable gap between signifiers and signifieds. The reader became paramount in poststructuralism, rather than the writer, since the author's intended meaning was less important than the reader's perception. Poststructuralists believe that the text and the systems of knowledge that produced it are to be studied similarly to other postmodernists who interrogated cultural assumptions. Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida are among the writers and thinkers associated with poststructuralism.
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