structuralism

structuralism

Things are understood in the context of larger structures

Structuralists are interested in:

1) Interrelationships between units

2) The rules that permeate each unit

Saussure

• Objected to the treatment of language as a “naming process”

• Argued that there is no inherent connection between an entity and the word that we use to describe it.

• Instead, he claimed that language is a system of signs, a signifying system.

saussure; signifier-signified

Each sign is a double entity comprised of:

1. Signified (mental concept)

2. Signifier (sound-image)

signs are:

arbitrary

relational

differential

key structuralists

Claude Levi-Strauss

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthe

The Structural Analysis of Narrative

• An attempt to find a working principle to account for every conceivable type of narrative.

• Structural analysis of narratives models itself on linguistics

• Deductive rather than inductive model: a need to construct a “functional syntax” to explain individual narratives

levels of description

functions

actions

narrations