CL final structuralism

Structuralism is a method of systemizing human existence that cuts across fields of study such as

literature, psychology, architecture, linguistics, and more

a structure is any conceptual system that has the following 3 properties:

wholeness, transformation, and self-regulation

wholeness is…

the system function as a unit

tranformation is…

new material can always be added to the system to be structured

self-regulation is…

despite being able to absorb new material, the workings of the system itself will not change

Saussure fundamentally changed the field of Linguistics

Before Saussure, words tended to be studied in their historical, diachronic dimension

synchronic properties

the rules of the words in combination and relationship at a single given point in time

signifier is…

the sound-image, what you actually hear when someone says “cat”

signified is…

the four-legged furry creature to which the sound “cat” refers

the relationship between signifier and signified is

arbitrary

signifiers work in relation to all others

As we learn language, we are learning to differentiate sounds and their concepts.

Languages embed cultural values and ideology in a number of ways:

• The way a language says something is significant.

• What a language can and cannot say is significant.

• How many different words there are for something is meaningful.

• Which binaries exist in a particular language is meaningful.

• Etc.

A language therefore delimits our world, giving us a sense of the very

world we live in. In this way, then, language is a MEDIUM:

 it mediates our sense of what and who we are and what the nature of the world is.

The French anthropologist _____ was interested in what was the SAME about all the different global cultures that had been studied by the mid-twentieth century

Claude Levi-Strauss

At that point in time, Claude Levi Strauss could plausibly make the argument that, in their traditional forms, all cultures had some kind of…

codified process of mate selection, kinship ties, and initiation into adulthood.

Levi-Strauss also studied what he called myth across cultures…

a form of narrative

Mythemes were…

smallest unit of narrative, e.g., “hero kills monster,” although there were many variations for each mytheme.

Semiotics applies structuralist insights 

to the study of what it calls “sign systems.”

Semiotics expands the signifier-signified relation to include…

objects, gestures, activities, sounds, images, anything that can be perceived by the senses

So many things in our world are working in relation to each other to communicate meanings. To reinforce this, semioticians pointed to three kinds of signs:

the index, icon, and symbol

The index is a sign in which…

the signifier has a concrete relation to the signified, e.g., smoke signals fire

The icon is a sign in which…

the signifier physically resembles the signified, e.g., a signifier depicting a flame to signal fire

The symbol is a sign in which…

the signifier is neither natural nor necessary but wholly arbitrary so that what it signifies is decided on by a community or group

language is a symbolic sign system to the semiotician

the sounds signal what they do by agreement of the group of speakers.

Flowers are a symbolic sign system in culture: certain flowers in certain colors are deemed to connote certain feelings or ideas. The culture as a whole came to these agreements about meaning. Flowers are…

symbols, and so are food and clothing

Semiotics allowed for a new academic field of study

cultural studies

Structuralists are interested in stories…

stories share plot, setting, and character.

But there are different structuralist enterprises:

classifying genres, describing narrative operations, and analyzing literary interpretation

theory of myths is…

 a theory of genres that lays out the structural principles underlying the Western literary tradition

4 mythoi relate to one of the following four genres:

comedy, romance, tragedy, and irony/satire

mythoi were related to seasons in which, summer is…

romance

mythoi were related to seasons in which, winter is…

satire/irony

mythoi were related to seasons in which, autumn is…

tragedy

mythoi were related to seasons in which, spring is…

comedy

summer/ romance

the ideal world, successful adventure & quest, plentitude, beauty, like Le Morte d’Arthur.

winter/satire or irony

the real world of experience, uncertainty, failure, or failed quests, sometimes through a comic lens, like The Invisible Man.

autumn/ tragedy

movement from ideal world to real world, from summer to winter, like King Lear.

spring/ comedy

movement from the real world to the ideal world, from difficulty to happiness, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

one master plot or key to understanding narrative as a whole

that plot it the structure of the quest

The traditional quest has four structural components:

conflict, catastrophe, disorder and confusion, and triumph.

the structure of the traditional quest is called ____ because it deals with recurring patterns across the tradition of Western literature.

archetypal criticism

modes, which come from the study of folk tales, are…

The classifications of each narrative component abound

greimas/ plot formulas

conflict and resolution; struggle and reconciliation; separation and union

Contractual structures

making/breaking agreements; performative structures: performance of tasks, trials, struggles; disjunctive structures: travel, movement, arrivals, departures.

qualities

order, duration, mood, perspective, and voice

Once these theorists have arrived at their formulas, they ask themselves…

why these narrative systems exist, and so they speculate about cultures, humans, or traditions etc.

cultures measure a person’s literary competence

based on how well they’ve internalized the culture’s rules of literary engagement

litereary competence and engagement involves:

distance/ impersonality, naturalization, rule of significance, and more