A Brief Introduction to Structuralism Zhu Gang The English word “structure” comes from structum‚ the past participle of the Latin struere‚ meaning “put in order.” There are two kinds of structuralism: structuralism as a mode of thinking‚ a general tendency of thought‚ or a philosophical view‚ and the narrower definition relating it to a method of inquiry‚ deriving chiefly from linguistics. Structuralism as a way of thinking can be traced back at least to Aristotle‚ whose Poetica is an
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Psychoanalytic Criticism Classical Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud Theory of the Psyche Humans are motivated‚ even driven‚ by desires‚ fears‚ needs‚ and conflicts of which they are unaware‚ that is unconscious The world through psychoanalytic lens Individual human beings Psychological history Childhood -> adolescent -> adult behavior Goal: help us resolve problems Disorders Dysfunctions Patterns of behavior – destructive (in some way) The Unconscious The storehouse of those painful experiences
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Structuralism Structuralism is a mode of thinking and a method of analysis practiced in 20th-century social sciences and humanities; it focuses on recurring patterns of thought and behaviour it seeks to analyse social relationships in terms of highly abstract relational structures. Structuralism is distinctly different from that applied to Radcliffe-Brown it involves more the bio and psychological aspect of human studies rather than social structures. Claude Levi-Strauss was the one to pioneer
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Structuralism and Semiotics What is Structuralism? Structuralism is the name that is given to a wide range of discourses that study underlying structures of signification. Signification occurs wherever there is a meaningful event or in the practise of some meaningful action. Hence the phrase‚ "signifying practices." A meaningful event might include any of following: writing or reading a text; getting married; having a discussion over a cup of coffee; a battle. Most (if not all) meaningful events
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‘Structuralism and Literary Criticism’ - Gerard Genette Structuralism is a way to examines a literary text to arrive at their meaning‚ rather than the actual meanings of the text themselves. It is a study of structure wherever they occur. In the essay Genette analyses content‚ logics‚ grammars and semiotics. He is considering structuralism as a method to study literary criticism. In the beginning of the essay Genette is establishing difference between Bricoleur and Engineer‚ Art critic and Literary
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Explain what is meant by the term structuralism‚ and assess both the strengths and weaknesses of structuralism as a theoretical perspective “Structuralism is often said to be hard to define because it has taken too many different forms for a common denominator to be in evidence”‚ (Piaget 1971 p3)‚ there are however 5 main thinkers that are strongly associated with the term despite its ambiguity. Of these 5 perhaps only one would proudly refer to themselves as such. This one would be Levi-Strauss
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Post Structuralism And Deconstruction . · without a fixed point of reference against which to measure movement we cannot tell whether or not you are moving at all. · · Post Structuralism accuse of not following through the omplications of the views about language on which their intellectual system is based. · Post structuralism says‚ in effect‚ that fixed intellectual reference points are pemanently removed by properly taking on board what structuralists said about language. · We could
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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
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This week’s readings were on structuralism and power. The first text‚ “structure‚ sign and play”‚ was written by Jacques Derrida. In his text Derrida seems to discuss structuralism by arguing that there it is no longer unthinkable to think of structure as one that has no center. He argues that there is no longer a center to culture‚ as would be seen through a fixed frame which would act as the center presence within it. In example‚ during the medieval period‚ God would have been seen as the center
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Post-Structuralism Post-structuralism is a continuation and simultaneous rejection of structuralism – not only literary structuralism but even more so the anthropological structuralism of Levi-Strauss (Bertens‚ 2008: 93). * Post-structuralist thought has discovered the essentially unstable nature of signification. The sign is not so much a unit with two sides as a momentary ‘fix’ between two moving layers. Saussure had recognized that signifier and signified are two separate systems‚ but he
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