STRUCTURALISM

Structuralism is an intellectual movement that originated from linguistics and began in France in the 1950s and 1960s. The element of structuralism was first seen in the work of the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss and the literary critic Roland Barthes. It was originated in France and imported into Britain in the 1970s widespread in the 1980s.  Structuralists believed that the world is constructed through language and that it is possible to establish objective knowledge through the linguistic medium. Further structuralists believed that realities and truth can be expressed through language. Language is not a chaotic one that is capable of expressing or producing fixed meaning. Structuralism has a scientific outlook and believed in reason.

Structuralism says that meaning is something that exists outside the text not within the text. Through this idea, structuralist opposes Newcritics who believed that meaning contains within the text, therefore, readers have to concentrate only on words on the page. Further structuralist says that meaning contains within the structure. The structure is a combination of many elements like history, philosophy, and genre. If you want to reach meaning, it is important to understand historical, philosophical, and genre-related aspects of literary works.

The arrival of structuralism in Britain and the USA in the 1970s created a controversy in the field of literary theory. Because it was an entirely different concept in those days. In the 1920s there was a Cambridge revolution in English studies that opposes the ideas of structuralism and promoted close reading of a text rather than looking at the structure and context.

MAJOR THEORISTS.

Ferdinand de Saussure.

Ferdinand de Saussure is the key figure who is associated with the origin of structuralism. Saussure was a Swiss linguist who is considered the father of modern linguistics. Let us have a look at each idea of Saussure one by one.

I. Meaning of words is purely arbitrary because there is no direct relation between words (signifier) and their meaning (signified). In the case of the word 'boy', there is no inherent connection between the word and its meaning. Therefore meanings are maintained by convention only. But there are exceptions in the case of onomatopoeic words like "cuckoo" and "hiss". Because these words themselves convey the meaning as there is a direct correspondence between word and meaning.

II. Saussure emphasizes that the meaning of a word is relational which means the meaning of a word is determined by its relation with other words. We cannot define a word in isolation from other words. For example, there is no concept of the day without night, male without female, public without private. Such opposite relation between words is known as binary opposition. 

III. Meaning is always attributed to the object or idea by the human mind and meaning can be constructed and expressed through language. 

Sign: Signifier and Signified.

Ferdinand de Saussure is the one who introduces the term sign. The systematic study of signs is known as semiotics. A sign can be a word or object. According to Saussure a sign is a combination of signifier and signified. A signifier is a  physical form that can be a printed word, sound, image, etc.  Signified is the meaning or concept or idea expressed by a word's sound, image, etc. (signifier). A signifier without signified is noise because that doesn't make any sense or meaning. A signifier is a fixed one but signified may change based on the reader or audience. For example, if we use the word God (signifier), that can mean different concepts of God. Some of them may think of Christian God, Hindu God, and Muslim God. Here signified is varied based on their religion. Therefore signifier is a fixed one whereas a signified keeps changing and changing based on the context. A sign is something that is limited only to language. It is associated with each and every aspect of human life. Traffic signals and symbols, our bodily postures and gestures, social rituals, the kind of cloth we wear,  etc everything come under the category of a sign.

Langue and Parole

A language is the combination of both langue and parole. Saussure first introduced the difference between langue and parole in his Course in General Linguistics. This is a series of university lectures collected by his student and published posthumously in 1916. Any single meaningful utterance, spoken. Langue denotes the system of rules and regulations that control, language, vocabulary, grammar, and sound systems in a language. Therefore grammar, spelling, syntax, and pronunciation are the elements of langue. At the same time parole denotes an oral or written piece of communication. In simple words language consists of two components, langue, and parole. Langue is the system of rules and regulations whereas parole is the written or spoken form of the language.

Claud Levi Strauss (1908-2009)

Claude Levi Strauss was a French anthropologist and one of the most prominent social scientists of the twentieth century. He is best known for his theory of structuralism. Structural Anthropology (1958) and The Savage Mind are important works written by him. The theory of binary opposition is proposed by Claud Levi Strauss. A binary relation is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. The theory says that human beings think through binary relations like day and night, black and white, and good and bad. Further, the theory says that it is necessary to understand binary in order to understand the meaning. 

Myth is another concept from Levi Strauss. A myth is a traditional story about the early history of people and typically it involves supernatural beings or events. Every country and literature has its mythology. For example, Christian myth, Greek myth, Hindu myth, etc. According to Claud Levi Struss, all the myths are different but each one has the same structure..

Roland Barthes.

Roland Barthes is a French essayist and literary theorist who contributed to both structuralism and poststructuralism. Barthes is the one who applied the structuralist method in the field of modern culture.  His structuralist ideas can be seen in his little book Mythologies which he published in 1957 where he discusses the differences between boxing and wrestling.  By distinguishing wrestling from boxing he tries to say that each event in our life has a significant meaning which is determined by values, beliefs, and symbols in society. 

Boxing is a sports event concerned with repression and endurance where boxers do not cry out in pain. There are no elaborated expressions like hero or villain. At the same time in the case of wrestling, there is an expression of artificial exaggerated pain. Wrestlers snarl with aggression and elaborate expression of victory or triumph. These two sports events have different functions or applications in society. Boxing-like incidents may happen in our life. Boxing intact endurance is sometimes necessary for life. We have to hide our pain and fight for achieving the target. at the same time wrestling is a dramatization of the struggle or conflict between good and evil.