Ferdinand de Saussure's Structuralism
STRUCTURALISM
- A theoretical method which is analytical not evaluative. - A way of approaching texts and practices derived from Ferdinand de Saussure.
Exponents of Structuralism include:
|Name |Field |
|Claude Lévi Strauss |Anthropology |
|Roland Barthes |Literary and Cultural Studies |
|Michel Foucault |Philosophy and History |
|Jacques Lacan |Psychoanalysis |
|Louis Althusser |Marxist Theory |
Introduction: Structuralist criticism designates the practice of critics who analyse literature on the explicit model of modern linguistic theory. It includes Russian Formalists (Roman Jakobson) and Paris-based writers who apply to literature the concept of the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1915). This is part of a larger movement called French Structuralism (1950s) inaugurated by Claude Lévi Strauss. Saussure was profoundly uncomfortable with traditional linguistics.
Structuralism was a departure from humanistic criticism. 1) Literary ‘work’ becomes a ‘text’ (constituted by a play of component elements according to specifically literary contents and codes) which has no truth value: a) Language does not mirror reality. b) Language is not unchanging. c) Written language is not superior to oral language. 2) The author is regarded as a construct – allowed no initiative or
- A theoretical method which is analytical not evaluative. - A way of approaching texts and practices derived from Ferdinand de Saussure.
Exponents of Structuralism include:
|Name |Field |
|Claude Lévi Strauss |Anthropology |
|Roland Barthes |Literary and Cultural Studies |
|Michel Foucault |Philosophy and History |
|Jacques Lacan |Psychoanalysis |
|Louis Althusser |Marxist Theory |
Introduction: Structuralist criticism designates the practice of critics who analyse literature on the explicit model of modern linguistic theory. It includes Russian Formalists (Roman Jakobson) and Paris-based writers who apply to literature the concept of the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1915). This is part of a larger movement called French Structuralism (1950s) inaugurated by Claude Lévi Strauss. Saussure was profoundly uncomfortable with traditional linguistics.
Structuralism was a departure from humanistic criticism. 1) Literary ‘work’ becomes a ‘text’ (constituted by a play of component elements according to specifically literary contents and codes) which has no truth value: a) Language does not mirror reality. b) Language is not unchanging. c) Written language is not superior to oral language. 2) The author is regarded as a construct – allowed no initiative or