Structuralism
DEFINITION/BACKGROUND/CRITICS
History and major concern
The advent of critical theory in the post-war period,
which comprised various complex disciplines like
linguistics, literary criticism,
Psychoanalytic Criticism, Structuralism,
Postcolonialism etc., proved hostile to the liberal
consensus which reigned the realm of criticism
between the 1930s and `50s.
History and major concern
Among these overarching discourses, the most
controversial were the two intellectual movements,
Structuralism and Poststructuralism originated in
France in the 1950s and the impact of which created
a crisis in English studies in the late 1970s and early
1980s. Language and philosophy are the major
concerns of these two approaches, rather than
history or author.
Reaction against New Criticism and Existentialism
Structuralism which emerged as a trend in the 1950s
challenged New Criticism and rejected Sartre‘s
existentialism and its notion of radical human
freedom; it focused instead how human behaviour is
determined by cultural, social and psychological
structures. It tended to offer a single unified
approach to human life that would embrace all
disciplines.
Multiple Directions
Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida explored the
possibilities of applying structuralist principles to
literature. Jacques Lacan studied psychology in the
light of structuralism, blending Freud and Saussure.
Michel Foucault‘s The Order of Things examined the
history of science to study the structures of
epistemology (though he later denied affiliation with
the structuralist movement). Louis Althusser
combined Marxism and Structuralism to create his
own brand of social analysis.
Simple Definition
Structuralism, in a broader sense, is a way of
perceiving the world in terms of structures.
Larger Structures
First seen in the work of the anthropologist
Claude Levi-Strauss and the literary critic
Roland Barthes, the essence of Structuralism is the
belief that “things cannot be understood in isolation,
they have to be seen in the context of larger
structures they are part of”, The contexts of larger
structures do not exist by themselves, but are formed
by our way of perceiving the world.
The Fundamental Belief
The fundamental belief of Structuralism, that all
human activities are constructed and not natural or
essential, pervades all seminal works of
Structuralism.
Units and Rules
Structuralism suggests the interrelationship between
“units” (surface phenomena) and “rules” (the ways in
which units can be put together). In language, units
are words and rules are the forms of grammar which
order words.
Simplicity of the Movement
Structuralists believe that the underlying structures
which organize rules and units into meaningful
systems are generated by the human mind itself and
not by sense perception. Structuralism tries to
reduce the complexity of human experiences to
certain underlying structures which are universal, an
idea which has its roots in the classicists like
Aristotle who identified simple structures as forming
the basis of life.
Properties of a Structure
A structure can be defined as any conceptual system
that has three properties:
“wholeness” (the system should function as a
whole),
“transformation” (system should not be static),
“self-regulation” (the basic structure should not
be changed).
Ferdinand de Saussure
Structuralism can be found in the theories of the
early twentieth century Swiss linguist,
Ferdinand de Saussure (
Course in General Linguistics, 1916), who moved
away from the then prevalent historical and
philological study of language (diachronic) to the
study of the structures, patterns and functions of
language at a particular time (synchronic).
Linguistic Sign
Saussure’s idea of the linguistic sign is a seminal
concept in all structuralist and poststructuralist
discourses. According to him, language is not
a naming process by which things get associated with
a word or name. The linguistic sign is made of the
union of “signifier” (sound image, or “psychological
imprint of sound”) and “signified” (concept). In this
triadic view, words are “unmotivated signs,” as there
is no inherent connection between a name (signifier)
and what it designates (signified).
Linguistic Sign
Concept
Linguistic Sign= Signifier + Signified
Sound Image
Linguistic Sign
It is important to note that Saussure perceived a
linguistic unit to be a ‘double entity.’ The closest way
of describing this is that it is composed of two
elements. He viewed the linguistic unit as a
combination of:
1. A sound-image (Signifier)
2. A concept or meaning (Concept)
Signifier and Signified-Inseperable
However, from Saussure’s point of view, the concepts
of signifier (sound-image) and signified (concept),
for example, are not two different entities; they are
two different ways to look at and describe language.
Signifier and signified are inseparably one. They are
like the two sides of a paper. With this theory he was
rejecting the Western tradition that treats language
like an entity or an instrument. For him language is
creative action, not a thing.
Mental Processes
The first point to understand is when Saussure
mentioned ‘linguistic units,’ ‘sound-images’ and
‘concepts,’ he was referring to the mental processes
that create these entities. He was not referring to
spoken or written words, but to the mental
impressions made on our senses by a certain ‘thing.’
It is our perception, or how we view this ‘thing,’
together with the sound system of our language that
creates the two-part mental linguistic unit he
referred to as a ‘sign.’
Example 1
The concept of “Chair” and the sound image “Chair”
Dutch – Stoel
Estonian – Tool
French – chaise
Urdu – Kursi
(Hence it means there is no direct association between
the word Chair and the real Chair)
Example 2
Let’s take for example the concept of ‘Google.’ The signifier
(‘Google’) and the signified (“a search engine on the internet”)
are inseparably one. You can’t have one without the other. The
sound image, or impression in our minds is of the logo
representing Google and through our language system we
know how that image sounds mentally. We know the concept
or meaning associated with this ‘sound impression’ is that
‘Google’ is a large search engine on the Internet. The
connections between the two elements are made mentally
without uttering or writing the word ‘Google,’ and the two
‘parts’ formed are joined and become united as a mental
linguistic unit. Saussure calls this dual linguistic unit a ‘sign.’
Arbitrary
As Saussure explains, the connection between all
‘signifiers’ which are ‘sound images’ or ‘linguistic
signs’ and what they are signifying — their signified
object or concept — is arbitrary. In other words,
there is not necessarily any logical connection
between the two. Again, the word ‘Google’
exemplifies this well.
Langue and Parole
Saussure’s use of the terms Langue (language as a
system) and Parole (an individual utterance in that
language, which is inferior to Langue) gave
structuralists a way of thinking about the larger
structures which were relevant to literature.
The governing laws
The main assumptions of structuralism and
semiology (or semiotics) would be that for every
process (an utterance for instance) there is a system
of underlying laws that govern it; and that the system
arises contingently (there are no natural or necessary
reasons for the relations within it to be as they are).
Langue and Parole
Within language, there is langue, or the system and
capacity of communication that we all possess.
Parole is the actual action that we engage in when
we speak. It is, essentially, speaking. Another way of
saying it: langue is the universal system, while
parole is the pivotal agent that contributes to the
expansion of the system.
Crux
In total, the langue is the sum of all the combined
aspects of a language system, while the parole is the
actual exercise of language through speaking.
Difference
Semiology understands that a word’s meaning derives
entirely from its difference from other words in the
sign system of language (eg: rain not brain or sprain
or rail or roam or reign- A chair is a chair because its
not a table- A cat is a cat because its not a dog). All
signs are cultural constructs that have taken on their
meaning through repeated, learned, collective use.
Claude Levi-Strauss
The French social anthropologist
Claude Levi-Strauss applied the structuralist outlook
to cultural phenomena like mythology, kinship
relations and food preparation. He applied the
principles of langue and parole in his search for the
fundamental mental structures of the human mind.
Myths seem fantastic and arbitrary yet myths from
different cultures are similar. Hence he concluded
there must be universal laws that govern myths (and
all human thought).
Claude Levi-Strauss
According to Levi-Strauss, every culture can be
understood, in terms of the binary oppositions like
high/low, inside/outside, life/death etc., an idea
which he drew from the philosophy of Hegel who
explains that in every situation there are two
opposing things and their resolution, which he called
“thesis, antithesis and synthesis”
