Structuralism

     Structuralism and Literary Criticism
                                   

Thinking Activity 

      Being a structuralist critic how would you analyse literary text or TV Serial or film? You can select any image or TV serial or advertisement. Apply structuralist method and post your write up on your blog. Give link of that blog. Post in the comment section under this blog. 

                                       

           What is Structuralism? 

            The basic meaning of Structuralism is a systematic study of language. In this term we can study language  from various angle. 'Structuralism' movement first time seen in the work of the anthropologist Claude Levi - Strauss. 

        The meaning of the word can be studied from various contexts and which context is appropriate with the situations. What we can interpret more about the word that is called the Structural study of the literary works. 

               Or we can say Freedom of reading that is also called Structuralism, for that we can study hermeneutic. 

                 For example Literary critic applies the structuralist literary theory and says that they not write new, their work have same structures as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Boy and girl falls in love despite the fact that they belong to two groups that hate each other.

                 But the versatility of structuralism is that a literary critic make two friendly families that arrange a marriage between their children, despite the children hate each other. Children commit suicide to escape. 

         For the understanding we can use three terms given by Saussure. 

                                       

     1- Langage( Language)  : The entire human potential for speech .

        2- Langue : The system that each of us uses to generate discourse that is intelligible to others .

          3- Parole : Our individual utterance. 

                                        

        Saussure also gives the linguistic structure :

      Arbitrary : The meaning we gave to                                    words .

    Relational : Meaning of the words can be                          relational .

    Constructs : Language constructs our                                   world. 

  There is also another style of  studying language .

   Diachronic = Historical way of looking.                                towards the words. 

   Synchronic = At a particular                                                  momentation. 

                         Gerard Genette

                                          

     According to him one discipline help to understand other discipline. And that he calls "Intellectual bricolage ".

      Genette observes relationship between Structuralism and Hermeneutics also. 

     Genette gives the concepts of Narratology.

   Order - Everything happens in order 

   Frequency - An event becomes once.                                    (singular) 

                     - An event happens so many.                            times but narrated once.                                       (Narrative) 

                  - An event becomes one time and                       narrates more times .                                            (Repetitive) 

    Duration - A lengthy discourse time but a                       short narrative time. 

        Voice - Who narrates and from where. 

                    -Intra-diegetic : Inside the text 

                    - Extra - diegetic : Outside the                                                             text .

                    - Hetero - diegetic : Narrator is.                                 not a character in the story. 

                     - Homo - diegetic : Narrator is a                                         character in the story. 

     Roland Barthes also apply this term from the stand point of Cultural anthropologist. For that he gives the example of Boxing and wrestling. 

                   Boxing = Social endurance 

                                           

Wrestling = Struggle between good and evil

      Roland Barthes apply this term in his essay S/Z , History of Sarrasine written by Balzac. 

   Let's discuss the poems through sign, signifier and signified .

Ice and Fire - Edmund Spenser 

    This poem is about poet's love for his beloved. He expresses his love. He himself becomes like Fire and her beloved becomes like  Ice. 

                                       

                                 

        But the paradox is, if fire goes near to the ice than ice should be melt and the heat should be decrease, but that's not happening but both grows on it's own way. 

                   Fire and Ice - Robert Frost 

                                        

        In this poem poet says that the world must end in Fire and also in Ice. But the fire represents  the desire, hate ,emotion.

                                       

   Same way Ice also have same power of destruction. Both are different but both have power of destruction. 

        Fire and Ice are also the signifier of  the relation between India and Pakistan. Mainly in Jammu Kashmir. Where we find Ice but full of fire. 

     Here I am discussing the advertisement which represents Sign,Signifier, and Signified. 

                                     

                                       In this advertisement we find that the situation is of something is going wrong, Something sorrowful.Man and women are gathered at the place. There's clothes of women which gives the some kind of signs, which is in a way fitted in our mind by convention. The sign of put out of lamp, which represents somebody will die. Suddenly women comes near the wife of a man who is ill and tries to remove the 'sindur' and break the Bengals of her. From this all sign are signifier of so many things. Also they tries to remove the 'Bindi 'of that woman, but they can't. Which again gives so many signs. And suddenly the husband of that woman wakes. 

          But in the and of the advertisement we find that this advertisement is about A Marker. Which has good quality of permanence. 

            But we get arbitrary, convention, relational meaning by pre assuming. 

                                                 Thank-you.....