Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Background, Theory and Text

PowerPoint Presentationan abstract level of discourse...which attempts to
formulate, conceptualize (sic) and generalize (sic) the
underlying principles of certain phenomena. In other
words, a theory is a way of looking at something, and
an effort to understand it. Furthermore, the general
nature of underlying principles is stressed. One may thus
deduce that theories, specifically literary theories, should
be appropriable to a variety of texts, not only one.
What is a theory?
is the methodology that implies elements of human culture
must be understood by way of their relationship to a
broader, overarching system or structure. It works to
uncover the structures that underlie all the things that
humans do, think, perceive, and feel.
The structuralist mode of reasoning has been applied in a
diverse range of fields, including anthropology, sociology.
psychology, literary criticism, economics and architecture.
Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 1900s,
mainly in France and Russian Empire, in the structural
linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent
Prague, Moscow and Copenhagen schools of linguistics.
Structuralism: Characteristics
As an academic discipline, structuralism is primarily concerned with the
study of structures – that is, how things get organized into
meaningful entities – as well as the structural relationships between
things. Its premise is that whatever things mean they will always come
to mean by virtue of a set of underlying principles which can be
determined by close analysis.
Structuralisms understanding of the world, then, is that everything
that constitutes it – us and the meanings, texts and rituals within
which we participate – is not the work of God, or of the mysteries of
nature, but rather an effect of the principles that structure us, the
meanings we inhabit and so on. The idea is that the world without
structures is meaningless – a random and chaotic continuum of
possibilities.
What structures do is to order that continuum, to organize it according to
a certain set of principles, which enable us to make sense of it. In this
way, structures make the world tangible to us, conceptually real, and
hence meaningful.
Application in Literature
Applications and Potentialities
founders of 20th-century linguistics
(together with Charles Sanders
the sign both from mere acoustic
'things'... and from mental
development "new roads were
linguistics, but also, in the future,
for the theory of literature".
Course in General Linguistics
(French: Cours de linguistique
Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye
from notes on lectures given by
Ferdinand de Saussure at the
University of Geneva between 1906
and 1911. It was published in 1916,
after Saussure's death, and is generally
regarded as the starting point of
structural linguistics, an approach to
linguistics that flourished in Europe
and the United States in the first half of
the 20th century.
From Raman Seldan, Peter Brooker and Peter Widdowson, Page: 63
Signified
Saussure: Arguments in a nutshell
In the nineteenth century linguistic scholars had mainly been
interested in historical aspects of language (such as working
out the historical development of languages and the connections
between them, and speculating about the origins of language
itself). Saussure concentrated instead on the patterns and
functions of language in use today, with the emphasis on how
meanings are maintained and established and on the functions of
grammatical structures.
Synchrony / Diachrony
A distinction must be made between the way languages appear to
us and as they are at any given time. Synchronic linguistics is
supposed to study the systematic aspects of language rather than
the diachronic aspects.
words are purely arbitrary, and that these meanings are
maintained by convention only. Words, that is to say, are
'unmotivated signs', meaning that there is no inherent
connection between a word and what it designates. Example: Cat, – Sukumar Roy –
The structuralists were interested in the implication that if
language as a sign system is based on arbitrariness of
this kind then it follows that language isn't a reflection
of the world and of experience, but a system which
stands quite separate from it.
Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, Page 37
Saussure emphasised that the meanings of words are (what
we might call) relational. That is to say, no word can be
defined in isolation from other words. The definition of any
given word depends upon its relation with other adjoining
words. For example, that word hut‘ depends for its precise
meaning on its position in a „paradigmatic chain, that is, a
chain of words related in function and meaning each of which
could be substituted for any of the others in a given sentence.
The paradigmatic chain in this case might include the following:
hovel shed hut house mansion palace
The meaning of any one of these words would be altered if any
one of the others were removed from the chain.
Syntagms and paradigms explain with how signs relate to each
other.
A syntagmatic relationship involves a sequence of signs that
together create meaning. A paradigmatic relationship involves
signs that can replace each other, usually changing the meaning
with the substitution.
The words in a sentence are all syntagms and together they form a
syntagmatic relationship that creates meaning. If you change the order
of syntagms in a sentence it can change the meaning significantly.
John ate an octopus.
An octopus ate John.
Two sentences using the exact same words (syntagms), but very different
meanings because the order (the syntagmatic relationship) of the words
changed.
Pat’s fish swam in a fishbowl
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations can be seen as different
dimensions of a sign and they‘re often shown that way as in the
following table:
The syntagmatic relationship is seen along the horizontal axis and
the paradigmatic relationship is seen along the vertical axis. Start at
any row and read across for the syntagmatic relationship. Look up
and down any column for the paradigmatic relationship.
For example The cow jumped over the moon (syntagmatic)
together form one meaning, but you could replace cow with
another word in the column (paradigmatic) to form a different
sentence with a different meaning such as the The fish jumped
over the moon.
Let me offer one more example. Here are a couple of three
course meals. The combination salad, salmon, ice cream
forms a syntagmatic relationship as does soup, steak, pie.
Salmon and steak have a paradigmatic relationship because one
can be substituted for another.
Salad Salmon Ice Cream
Syntagmatic relationships lead into the idea of narrative,
story, and myth. A narrative is usually defined as a sequence
of causally related events. A happens, which leads to B
happening, which leads to C happening, and so on:
Sequential Compositional flow of a narrative.
Marlboro famously used imagery of cowboys to invoke the
cowboy myth to sell cigarettes for about 30 years. An ad
would show an image of a cowboy doing something a
cowboy does and smoking a cigarette. The idea was the
image would remind you of the cowboy myth and you
would connect independence and individualism with
smoking.
How literary language can become obscure due to the distance between the axis of Syntagm and Paradigm?
Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle
and Environs. - Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce
Riverrun: can be a noun and a verb phrase as well (riverrun vs. river run)
past: again either a noun (past) or the simple past form of the verb "pass"
(passed, but pronounced exactly as "past"
Adam and Eve: that´s a church in Dublin, on the other hand, legend has it that
they are our ancestors, thus: Either: passed Adam and Eve´s Church Or: Adam
and Eve‘s past
a commodius vicus of recirculation: We can assume that "vicious circle" is
implied here, among several other possible connotations. Besides, "vicus"
could be a(n oblique) reference to Giambattista Vico, who was known of his
circular view of history. (~ back to Adam and Eve, basically) "Commodius"
might refer to "commodious". "commodius vicus" has the same short form as
"curriculum vitae" that is CV, so it might refer to the course of life or history.
For Saussure, language constitutes our world, it doesn't just
record it or label it. Meaning is always attributed to the object
or idea by the human mind, and constructed by and expressed
through language: it is not already contained within the thing.
Well-known examples of this process would be the choice
between paired alternatives like 'terrorist' or 'freedom fighter'.
There is no neutral or objective way of designating such a person,
merely a choice of two terms which 'construct' that person in
certain ways.
Prior to Saussure, language had been thought of simply as a
system for naming an objective reality which was presumed to
exist before, and outside of, language itself. Within this way of
thinking, the real world is clearly already there, while language
simply comes along to label it in all its specicities. But Saussure‘s
idea of language radically attacked this notion.
THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY by
Simon Malpas and Paul Wake, Page: 15
For Saussure, there are no objects (words/texts/others) that carry
inherent, autonomous, “positive” meaning: there are only points of
view whose meanings depend on their interrelatedness.
THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY by
Simon Malpas and Paul Wake, Page: 15
For the purposes of our discussion of structuralism,
however, it is enough at this point to say that the
significance of Saussures theory is threefold:
(i) it gives us the notion that language is not natural but
systematic;
existence and that it works to structure what we think
we know; and
(iii) it shifts the emphasis of cultural study firmly in the
direction of attention to texts and the evidence they
can be said to provide of the linguistic construction of
meaning.
Vladimir Propp (1895 –1970) was a Soviet folklorist and
scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian
folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural
units.
Jakobson was one of the most
celebrated and influential linguists
Nikolai Trubetzkoy, he developed
revolutionary new techniques for
modern discipline of phonology.
similar principles and techniques
language such as syntax,
Disturbances (1956) a seminal text in structural analysis
Aphasia: A language disorder that affects a persons ability to
communicate. It can occur suddenly after a stroke or head injury or develop
slowly from a growing brain tumour or disease.
A stroke victim, for instance, may have lost the full power of speech and is
limited to certain kinds of verbal connection. The limitation tends to work in
either one of two possible ways. The deficiency can be on the paradigmatic
axis or the syntagmatic one. Let‘s go back to a simple example:
The cat sat on the mat
A dog stood on the carpet
The syntagmatic axis moves from left to right--across the sentence--so that
the linguistic elements are related contiguously. They are all present and
they are ordered according to grammatical construction, in Saussurian terms,
as parole. The paradigmatic axis dips downwards into the absent pool of
substitutions, similarities and differences available by virtue of la langue, the
linguistic system. An utterance thus encodes meaning through selection from
the paradigmatic axis and combination on the Syntagmatic one.
Syntagmatic Axis
y
Similarly, Jakobson classifies two types of aphasia based on such a
bipolar function of language- the similarity
disorder and contiguity disorder. In the Similarity disorder the
patient loses the capacity to select and substitute elements because
he is confused with their similarly and cannot see their distinction.
His power of combination helps him make grammatically
sentences, but he makes mistakes with content words. He cannot
recognize words without content. For him only combined
sequences are meaningful. There is another type of aphasia in
which a person may have a good vocabulary but fails to put words
together properly. The defect in the production of speech due to the
loss of the capacity to combine is called contiguity disorder.
Similarity disorder and contiguity disorder
Claude Lévi-Strauss
in the development of the theory of
structural anthropology.
Structural Anthropology of Claude Levi Strauss
The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) came to be regarded as one of
the most important anthropological works on kinship. It was even reviewed
favorably by Simone de Beauvoir, who viewed it as an important statement
of the position of women in non-Western cultures. A play on the title of
Durkheim's famous Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Elementary
Structures re-examined how people organized their families by examining
the logical structures that underlay relationships rather than their contents.
While British anthropologists such as Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown
argued that kinship was based on descent from a common ancestor, Lévi-
Strauss argued that kinship was based on the alliance between two
families that formed when women from one group married men from
another.
The Savage Mind (1962) discusses not just "primitive" thought, a category
defined by previous anthropologists, but also forms of thought common to
all human beings. The first half of the book lays out Lévi-Strauss's theory of
culture and mind, while the second half expands this account into a theory of
history and social change. This latter part of the book engaged Lévi-
Strauss in a heated debate with Jean-Paul Sartre over the nature of
human freedom.
S/Z, published in 1970, is
Roland Barthes' structural
Balzac. Barthes methodically
story, denoting where and how
different codes of meaning
major impact on literary
criticism and is historically
structuralism and post-
structuralism.
Barthes is fascinated by the nuance of the double entendre, which most
clearly fractures the traditional conception of signification: this play on
words proffers two distinct and incompatible meanings that must be
entertained simultaneously by the reader. The title S/Z refers to the clash
between the S‘ of Sarrasine,‘ the male protagonist of the work, and the Z‘
of Zambinella,‘ the castrato with whom Sarrasine falls in love. Sarrasine is
an artist who, functioning under the assumption that all beauty is feminine,
regards Zambinella as the epitome of beauty, and therefore as the paradigm
of femininity. Sarrasine‘s sculpted image of the female La Zambinella
accordingly represents the complete woman. This masterpiece,
however, is highly problematic given its original starting point as a male
body — and its refashioning into a female one through the psychological
projections and artistic expertise of a man. What ultimately grounds the text
is the fundamental destabilisation caused by Zambinella‘s anatomy, which
is perceived by Sarrasine as masterpiece, origin, and referent: in
Zambinella, therefore, lies Sarrasine‘s own potential for castration.
In Context of "Sarrasine", the short story by Honoré de Balzac
1. Proairetic code (the voice of empirics): The code of actions. Any
action initiated must be completed. The cumulative actions constitute the
plot events of the text.
2. Hermeneutic code (the voice of truth): The code of enigmas or
puzzles.
3. Connotative [or Semic] code (the voice of the person): The
accumulation of connotations. Semes, sequential thoughts, traits and
actions constitute character. The proper noun surrounded by
connotations.
4. Cultural or referential code (the voice of science [or
knowledge]): Though all codes are cultural we reserve this designation
for the storehouse of knowledge we use in interpreting everyday
experience.
5. Symbolic code (voice of the symbol): Binary oppositions or themes.
The inscription into the text of the antithesis central to the organization
of the cultural code.
closed system
construct – Open-ended medium, giving rise
to interpretations – Hermeneutics.
Birth of Poststructuralism
From Terry Eagletons Literary Theory Page 111
Examples from literature: The Metamorphosis (1915) by Franz Kafka tells the story of
salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find
himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect.
Rhinoceros (1959) by Eugène Ionesco: Over the course of
three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French
town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human
who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the
central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure.
Common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humor,
incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy
regarding the philosophical condition of being “nothing”.
Works of absurdist fiction often explore agnostic or nihilistic
topics.
Linguistics is a discipline which has always been inherently
confident about the possibility of establishing objective
knowledge. It believes that if we observe accurately, collect
data systematically, and make logical deductions then we can
reach reliable conclusions about language and the world.
Structuralism inherits this confidently scientific outlook: it
too believes in method, system, and reason as being able to
establish reliable truths.
philosophy. Philosophy is a discipline which has always tended to
emphasise the difficulty of achieving secure knowledge about
things. This point of view is encapsulated in Nietzsche's famous
remark 'There are no facts, only interpretations'. Philosophy is, so
to speak, sceptical by nature and usually undercuts and questions
commonsensical notions and assumptions. Its procedures often begin
by calling into question what is usually taken for granted as simply
the way things are. Post-structuralism inherits this habit of scepticism,
and intensifies it. It regards any confidence in the scientific method as
naive, and even derives a certain masochistic intellectual pleasure
from knowing for certain that we can't know anything for certain,
fully conscious of the irony and paradox which doing this entails.
Differences between Structuralism and
generalisation: it aims for a detached, 'scientific coolness' of tone.
Given its derivation from linguistic science, this is what we would
expect. An essay like Roland Barthes's 1966 piece Introduction to the
Structural Analysis of Narrative‘ (reprinted in Image, Music, Text, ed.
Stephen Heath, 1977) is typical of this tone and treatment, with its
discrete steps in an orderly exposition, complete with diagrams. The
style is neutral and anonymous, as is typical of scientific writing.
Post-structuralist writing, by contrast, tends to be much more
emotive. Often the tone is urgent and euphoric, and the style
flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Titles may well contain puns
and allusions, and often the central line of the argument is based on a
pun or a word-play of some kind.
through language, in the sense that we do not have
access to reality other than through the linguistic
medium. Attitude to language Structuralists accept that
the world is constructed through language, in the sense
that we do not have access to reality other than through
the linguistic medium. After all, language is an orderly
system, not a chaotic one, so realising our dependence
upon it need not induce intellectual despair.
Attitude to language: By contrast, post-structuralism is much more fundamentalist in
insisting upon the consequences of the view that, in effect, reality
itself is textual. Post-structuralism develops what threaten to
become terminal anxieties about the possibility of achieving any
knowledge through language. The verbal sign, in its view, is
constantly floating free of the concept it is supposed to
designate. Thus, the post-structuralist‘s way of speaking about
language involves a rather obsessive imagery based on liquids -
signs float free of what they designate, meanings are fluid, and
subject to constant 'slippage' or 'spillage'. This linguistic liquid,
slopping about and swilling over unpredictably, defies our
attempts to carry signification carefully from 'giver' to
'receiver' in the containers…

Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Background, Theory and Text

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