STRUCTURALISM

The advent of critical theory in the post-war period, which comprised various
complex disciplines like linguistics, literary criticism, Psychoanalytic Criticism,
Structuralism, Postcolonialism etc., proved hostile to the liberal consensus which
reigned the realm of criticism between the 1930s and `50s. Among these
overarching discourses, the most controversial were the two intellectual movements,
Structuralism and Poststructuralism originated in France in the 1950s and the impact
of which created a crisis in English studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Language and philosophy are the major concerns of these two approaches, rather
than history or author.
 STRUCTURALISM
Structuralism which emerged as a trend in the 1950s challenged New Criticism and
rejected Sartre‘s existentialism and its notion of radical human freedom; it focused
instead how human behaviour is determined by cultural, social and psychological
structures. It tended to offer a single unified approach to human life that would
embrace all disciplines. Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida explored the
possibilities of applying structuralist principles to literature. Jacques Lacan studied
psychology in the light of structuralism, blending Freud and Saussure. Michel
Foucault‘s The Order of Things examined the history of science to study the
structures of epistemology (though he later denied affiliation with the structuralist
movement). Louis Althusser combined Marxism and Structuralism to create his own
brand of social analysis.
Structuralism which emerged as a trend in the 1950s challenged New Criticism and
rejected Sartre‘s existentialism and its notion of radical human freedom; it focused
instead how human behaviour is determined by cultural, social and psychological
structures.
 STRUCTURALISM
It tended to offer a single unified approach to human life that would embrace all
disciplines. Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida explored the possibilities of
applying structuralist principles to literature. Jacques Lacan studied psychology in
the light of structuralism, blending Freud and Saussure. Michel Foucault‘s The Order
of Things examined the history of science to study the structures of epistemology
(though he later denied affiliation with the structuralist movement). Louis Althusser
combined Marxism and Structuralism to create his own brand of social analysis.
Structuralism, in a broader sense, is a way of perceiving the world in terms of
structures. First seen in the work of the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss and the
literary critic Roland Barthes, the essence of Structuralism is the belief that “things
cannot be understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the context of larger
structures they are part of”, The contexts of larger structures do not exist by
themselves, but are formed by our way of perceiving the world.

 STRUCTURALISM
Saussure’s idea about linguistic structure can expatiate in three ways:
1. Firstly, the imposed meaning of a word is absurd and it keeps on only our
traditional faith. There is no relation between a word and its meaning. For
example, the meaning of the word ‘hut’ might not be what it traditionally
implies. It would give another meaning. So, it’s absurd to cherish a specific
meaning fixed for a specific word.
2. Secondly, No word can be defined keeping it separate from its related words.
Every word depends on its synonymous words for giving a meaning idea. So,
word meanings depend on their systematic arrangements. For this, when we say
the word ‘Mansion’, we make a comparison with its synonymous words like
‘house’, ‘palace’ etc. Not only the synonyms but also the antonyms of a word
help us to impose a meaning upon a word. As a result, the word ‘Man’ expresses
such a meaning that the ‘woman’ does not, as ‘day’ does not like ‘night’. So, all
the words are netted with their comparative and contrastive ideas.

 STRUCTURALISM
3. Thirdly, the meaning of a word is always imposed on it by human mind and idea. It is
never universal. For example, there is no impartial and real method for distinguishing
two persons — one is a ‘terrorist’ and another is a ‘Freedom fighter’. They can be
accepted by various persons with various ideas and valuations. So, language is arbitrary
and relational and constitutive.
Main characteristics of Structuralism literary theory
The main characteristics of Structuralism in literary theory are as follows:
1. A focus on the underlying structure of a literary text.
2. The meaning of a text is in the inter-relationship of its parts.
3. Binary oppositions are key to understanding a text.
4. The individuality and personality of the author are unimportant. What matters
are the deep structures.
5. Literary texts are constructs. Meaning does not come from inside the text. Instead,
meaning comes from the relationship of each part of the text with other parts.

Structuralism

Based primarily on the linguistic

theories of Ferdinand de Saussure,
structuralism considered language
as a system of signs and
signification, the elements of which
are understandable only in relation
to each other and to the system. In
literary theory, structuralism
challenged the belief that a work
of literature reflected a given
reality; instead, a text was
constituted of linguistic
conventions and situated among
other texts.
Structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism
From Linguistics to all fields
From Linguistics to all fields
From Linguistics to all fields
 Post-structuralism
The second half of the twentieth century, with its torturous experiences of the World Wars,
Holocaust and the advent of new technologies, witnessed revolutionary developments in literary
theory that were to undermine several of the established notions of Western literary and cultural
thought. The most prominent of them was Poststructuralism, with its watchword of “deconstructive
reading” endorsed by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The theory, launched in Derrida’s
paper Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (1966), which he presented
at Johns Hopkins University, had its roots in philosophy, especially in Martin Heidegger’s concept
of “Destruktion”. Derrida was also influenced by Nietzsche, Freud and Marx, each of whom
brought about revolutionary ways of thinking in their respective disciplines.
Derrida attacked the systematic and quasi-scientific pretensions of structuralism — derived from
Saussurean Structural Linguistics and Levi-Strauss’ Structural Anthropology — which presupposes
a centre that organises and regulates the structure and yet “escapes structurality”. Contemporary
thinkers like Foucault, Barthes and Lacan undertook in diverse ways to decentre/ undermine the
traditional claims for the existence of a self-evident foundation that guarantees the validity of
knowledge and truth.
 Post-structuralism
Poststructuralism comes out structuralism as a reactionary movement against structuralism.
Structuralism reaches the meaning of the text through linguistic analysis to show that there is a
common and central meaning to all the cultures.
Poststructuralists also find the meaning of the text through its linguistic analysis (every critic
analyses the language of the literary text, but when the word linguistic analysis is used it is to
suggest the form or pattern of the text and language) to claim that there is no common or central
meaning.
Poststructuralism denies the centrality of meaning by arguing that the meaning of a particular
sign may differ from culture to culture; therefore, there cannot be a universal meaning. For
instance, ‘apple’ may mean a fruit to some people and phone, also, to some people; the colour
white may also connote mourning in some cultures and happiness in others.
So, universal truth or meaning has no space in poststructuralist discourse because language in
itself is a product of the culture which ascribes meaning to the signs.
 Post-structuralism
The idea that a literary text has a single meaning or purpose was dumped by poststructuralists.
They believe, rather, every individual creates his/her own meaning of the text; hence, a text has
multiple meanings. For them, the meaning finds attention in its reader’s reception of it than what
the author intends.
Poststructuralism and structuralism both deny the agency of the author in the text. They believe
that the moment the text comes in the reader’s hand, its author dies, and the reader as its sole
agent takes birth.
Roland Barthes, a structuralist and later turned poststructuralist, in his essay, “The Death of the
Author,” argues for the replacement of the author by the reader as the primary subject of inquiry.
This process is called ‘destabilizing’ or ‘decentering’ of the author. Without any concentration on
the author poststructuralists examine the sources for meaning e.g. readers, cultural norms, other
texts, etc.
 Post-structuralism
Jacques Derrida, author of the paper “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human
Sciences,” spearheaded the concept of words deriving meaning from one another in an endless
and futile cycle. He sought to challenge the logocentric structure and patterns of western thinking,
claiming that there could be no universal source of logic and meaning.
Roland Barthes was originally a structuralist before he wrote “Death of the Author,” a piece
encouraging critics to forgo the analysis of the author’s intention. His valid argument was that
most of the time, even authors didn’t quite understand what they were trying to say, and the only
true human/literature relationship that mattered was the relationship between the novel and the
reader. Thus, post-structuralism was hailed by some as the “Birth of the Reader.”
Post-structuralism operates on a few basic tenets which revolve around the concept that literature
and art can never reach full closure.
Works are inspired and based upon each other. They share techniques and subject matter. It is
impossible for a poem or novel to be self-sufficient. Perhaps in an effort to avoid this inevitability
somewhat, post-structuralists tend to focus on seemingly meaningless and small details in a
piece of literature.
 Post-structuralism
Let’s use Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray as an example. A major theme in this
novel is the effect of time. The novel’s title character has found a way to escape death, so his
friends age while his body remains perfectly untouched. “Time” is one of these keywords to which
we can apply erasure. Time is a theoretical concept that no longer applies to Dorian Gray, for his
portrait has made him ageless. For other characters “time” derives meaning from “age,” but to
Dorain, the word seems to lack a trace. To him, seconds, hours, and minutes are inconsequential.
Years are but a daydream. A decade is only a word to Dorian Gray…a word without an opposite
and therefore a word without meaning.
Post-structuralism
The five codes identified by Barthes in S/Z are:
1. The proairetic code: This code provides indications of actions. ('The ship
sailed at midnight' 'They began again', etc.)
2. The hermeneutic code: This code poses questions or enigmas which provide
narrative suspense. (For instance, the sentence 'He knocked on a certain door in
the neighbourhood of Pell Street' makes the reader wonder who lived there,
what kind of neighbourhood it was, and so on).
3. The cultural code: This code contains references out beyond the text to
what is regarded as common knowledge. (For example, the sentence 'Agent
Angelis was the kind of man who sometimes arrives at work in odd socks'
evokes a preexisting image in the reader's mind of the kind of man this is - a
stereotype of bungling incompetence, perhaps, contrasting that with the image
of brisk efficiency contained in the notion of an 'agent'.)
Post-structuralism
4. The semic code :This is also called the connotative code. It is linked to theme,
and this code (says Scholes in the book mentioned above) when organised
around a particular proper name constitutes a 'character'. Its operation is
demonstrated in the second example, below.
5. The symbolic code: This code is also linked to theme, but on a larger scale, so
to speak. It consists of contrasts and pairings related to the most basic binary
polarities - male and female, night and day, good and evil, life and art, and so
on. These are the structures of contrasted elements which structuralists see as
fundamental to the human way of perceiving and organising reality.
 Deconstruction
• Invites us to “unravel” the constructs around us and to re-examine
appearance and reality
• Seeks to show that a literary work is self-contradictory
• In high school we teach that meanings are “fixed” there is an “answer” or
meaning behind works of art. So how does this explain that people have
different interpretations of what art is?
• Most high school teachers would never teach this form of analysis

Deconstruction involves the close reading of texts in order to demonstrate

that any given text has irreconcilably contradictory meanings, rather than
being a unified, logical whole.
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Origins of Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction
 Steps of Deconstruction
1.Upon first reading, write a brief
summary of what MOST people
would say about the work.
2.Identify binaries in a chart
3.Identify metaphors (intended and
unintended meanings)
4.Look for any words that might
have two meanings
5.Look for contradictions (does
something not make sense?)
6.Then write about how the work
shakes these things up!
 Postmodernism
Postmodernism broadly refers to a socio-cultural and literary theory, and a shift in
perspective that has manifested in a variety of disciplines including the social
sciences, art, architecture, literature, fashion, communications, and technology. It is
generally agreed that the postmodern shift in perception began sometime back in the
late 1950s, and is probably still continuing. Postmodernism can be associated with the
power shifts and dehumanization of the post-Second World War era and the
onslaught of consumer capitalism.
The very term Postmodernism implies a relation to Modernism. Modernism was an
earlier aesthetic movement which was in vogue in the early decades of the twentieth
century. It has often been said that Postmodernism is at once a continuation of and a
break away from the Modernist stance.
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Postmodernism
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The Modernist belief in order, stability and unity is what the Postmodernist thinker Lyotard
calls a metanarrative. Modernism works through metanarratives or grand narratives, while
Postmodernism questions and deconstructs metanarratives. A metanarrative is a story a
culture tells itself about its beliefs and practices.
Postmodernism understands that grand narratives hide, silence and negate contradictions,
instabilities and differences inherent in any social system. Postmodernism favours “mini-
narratives,” stories that explain small practices and local events, without pretending
universality and finality. Postmodernism realizes that history, politics and culture are grand
narratives of the power-wielders, which comprise falsehoods and incomplete truths.
Having deconstructed the possibility of a stable, permanent reality, Postmodernism has
revolutionized the concept of language. Modernism considered language a rational,
transparent tool to represent reality and the activities of the rational mind. In the Modernist
view, language is representative of thoughts and things. Here, signifiers always point to
signifieds. In Postmodernism, however, there are only surfaces, no depths. A signifier has no
signified here, because there is no reality to signify.
 Postmodernism
The French philosopher Baudrillard has conceptualized the Postmodern surface
culture as a simulacrum. A simulacrum is a virtual or fake reality simulated or induced
by the media or other ideological apparatuses. A simulacrum is not merely an imitation
or duplication—it is the substitution of the original by a simulated, fake image.
Contemporary world is a simulacrum, where reality has been thus replaced by false
images. This would mean, for instance, that the Gulf war that we know from
newspapers and television reports has no connection whatsoever to what can be
called the “real” Iraq war. The simulated image of Gulf war has become so much more
popular and real than the real war, that Baudrillard argues that the Gulf War did not
take place. In other words, in the Postmodern world, there are no originals, only copies;
no territories, only maps; no reality, only simulations. Here Baudrillard is not merely
suggesting that the postmodern world is artificial; he is also implying that we have lost
the capacity to discriminate between the real and the artificial.
 Postmodernism
In literature, postmodernism (relying heavily on fragmentation, deconstruction,
playfulness, questionable narrators etc.) reacted against the Enlightenment ideas
implicit in modernist literature – informed by Lyotard’s concept of the “metanarrative”,
Derrida’s concept of “play”, and Budrillard’s “simulacra.” Deviating from the modernist
quest for meaning in a chaotic world, the postmodern. writers eschew, often playfully,
the possibility of meaning, and the postmodern novel is often a parody of this. quest.
Marked by a distrust of totalizing mechanisms and self-awareness, postmodern
writers often celebrate chance over craft and employ metafiction to undermine the
author’s “univocation”. The distinction between high and low culture is also attacked
with the employment of pastiche, the combination of multiple cultural elements
including subjects and genres not previously deemed fit for literature. Postmodern
literature can be considered as an umbrella term for the post-war developments in
literature such as Theatre of the Absurd, Beat Generation and Magical Realism.
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