Structuralism in literary theory pdf

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@article{Sanusi2012StructuralismAA, title={Structuralism as a Literary Theory: An Overview}, author={Ic Sanusi}, journal={AFRREV LALIGENS: An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies}, year={2012}, volume={1}, pages={124-131} }The 20th century is characterized by the proliferation of ideas. The ideas so
developed and harnessed permeated all fields of human endeavor from epistemology, metaphysics and logic. Every field has registered one form of breakthrough or another. In literature, many literary theories are developed and become the gateway to textual interpretation and analysis. One of such is the Theory of Structuralism. It is a plethora of
theories with different analytical tools. Most of these subscribe to… Literary theories have arisen to address some perceived needs in the critical appreciation of literature but flipside theory is a novelty that fills a gap in literary theory. By means of a critical… This study aims to determine structuralism and religious values in the short story "Pengemis
dan Shalawat Badar". Know the elements in the short story. In the research entitled: Analysis of… View 2 excerpts, cites backgroundDarmoko DarmokoArtInternational Review of Humanities Studies2019The cemetery complex of Ki Ageng Gribig (KAG) in Jatinom, Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia as a cultural resource contains a number of interesting
texts for discussion. The text of cultural objects,… The Karuhan Urang Customary Community (Masyarakat Adat Karuhun Urang– AKUR) from Cigugur is one of the communities that still adhere to Sunda Wiwitan beliefs. This community has mutual respect for… View 1 excerpt, cites methodsP. P. Clark, T. EagletonArt, Psychology1983This classic
work is designed to cover all of the major movements in literary studies during this century. Noted for its clear, engaging style and unpretentious treatment, Literary Theory has become… I Some Elementary Concepts 1. Criticism and Judgement 2.

Domain and Object 3. Questions and Answers 4. Rule and Law 5. Positive and Negative Judgement 6.
Front and Back 7. Improvisation, Structure… In his Course in General Linguistics, first published in 1916, Saussure postulated the existence of a general science of signs, or Semiology, of which linguistics would form only one part. Semiology… View 2 excerpts, references backgroundPublished in 1977 as the first volume in the New Accents series,
Structuralism and Semiotics made crucial debates in critical theory accessible to those with no prior knowledge of the field. Since… View 2 excerpts, references backgroundHarry BlamiresHistory, Economics1991Introductory Note Editor's Preface 1. The Classical Age 2.

The Middle Ages 3. The Renaissance 4. The Seventeenth Century I: Peachman to Dryden 5. The Seventeenth Century II: Rymer to Dennis 6. the… Robert DiyanniArt, Education2001This anthology offers a lively introduction to the study of fiction, poetry, and drama, and is appropriate for introduction to literature courses as well as literature-based
composition courses.… Martin StephenLinguistics, Art19911. Study and examination techniques in English literature 2. Revision, project work and research techniques 3. A guide to basic literary terms 4. Practical criticism: poetry 5. Practical criticism:… View 4 excerpts, references backgroundThe Structure of Authorship: The Philosophy of Genetic
StructuralismFAIS Journal of Humanities: Bayero University…2002Modern Criticism and Theory, Essex: Longman 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 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, 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. In
structuralist criticism, consequently, there is a constant movement away from the interpretation of the individual literary work towards understanding the larger structures which contain them. For example, the structuralist analysis of Donne‘s poem Good Morrow demands more focus on the relevant genre (alba or dawn song), the concept of courtly
love, etc., rather than on the close reading of the formal elements of the text. The fundamental belief of Structuralism, that all human activities are constructed and not natural or essential, pervades all seminal works of Structuralism. Beginning with the trailblazers, Levi Strauss and Barthes, the other major practitioners include A. J. Greimas,
Vladimir Propp, Terence Hawkes (Structuralism and Semiotics), Robert Scholes (Structuralism in Literature), Colin MacCabe, Frank Kermode and David Lodge (combined traditional and structuralist approaches in his book Working with Structuralism). The American structuralists of the 1960s were Jonathan Culler and the semioticians C.
S. Peirce, Charles Morris and Noam Chomsky. With its penchant for scientific categorization, Structuralism suggests the interrelationship between “units” (surface phenomena) and “rules” (the ways in which units can be put together).
In language, units are words and rules are the forms of grammar which order words. Structuralists believe that the underlying structures which organize rules and units into meaningful systems are generated by the human mind itself and not by sense perception. Structuralism tries to reduce the complexity of human experiences to certain underlying
structures which are universal, an idea which has its roots in the classicists like Aristotle who identified simple structures as forming the basis of life. A structure can be defined as any conceptual system that has three properties: “wholeness” (the system should function as a whole), “transformation” (system should not be static), and “self-regulation
(the basic structure should not be changed). Structuralism in its inchoate form can be found in the theories of the early twentieth century Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (Course in General Linguistics, 1916), who moved away from the then prevalent historical and philological study of language (diachronic) to the study of the structures,
patterns and functions of language at a particular time (synchronic). Saussure’s idea of the linguistic sign is a seminal concept in all structuralist and poststructuralist discourses. According to him, language is not a naming process by which things get associated with a word or name. The linguistic sign is made of the union of “signifier” (sound image,
or “psychological imprint of sound”) and “signified” (concept). In this triadic view, words are “unmotivated signs,” as there is no inherent connection between a name (signifier) and what it designates (signified). The painting This is Not a Pipe by the Belgian Surrealist artist Rene Magritte explicates the treachery of signs and can be considered a
founding stone of Structuralism. Foucault‘s book with the same title comments on the painting and stresses the incompatibility of visual representation and reality. Saussure’s theory of language emphasizes that meanings are arbitrary and relational (illustrated by the reference to 8.25 Geneva to Paris Express in Course in General Linguistics; the
paradigmatic chain hovel-shed-hut-house-mansion-palace, where the meaning of each is dependent upon its position in the chain; and the dyads male-female, day-night etc. where each unit can be defined only in terms of its opposite). Saussurean theory establishes that human being or reality is not central; it is language that constitutes the world.
Saussure employed a number of binary oppositions in his lectures, an important one being speech/writing. Saussure gives primacy to speech, as it guarantees subjectivity and presence, whereas writing, he asserted, denotes absence, of the speaker as well as the signified. Derrida critiqued this as phonocentrism that unduly privileges presence over
absence, which led him to question the validity of all centres. Saussure’s use of the terms Langue (language as a system) and Parole an individual. utterance in that language, which is inferior to Langue) gave structuralists a way of thinking about the larger structures which were relevant to literature. Structuralist narratology, a form of Structuralism
espoused by Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes and Gerard Genette illustrates how a story’s meaning develops from its overall structure, (langue) rather than from each individual story’s isolated theme (parole). To ascertain a text’s meaning, narratologists emphasize grammatical elements such as verb tenses and the relationships and
configurations of figures of speech within the story. This demonstrates the structuralist shift from authorial intention to broader impersonal Iinguistic structures in which the author’s text (a term preferred over “work”) participates.
Structuralist critics analyse literature on the explicit model of structuralist linguistics. In their analysis they use the linguistic theory of Saussure as well as the semiotic theory developed by Saussure and the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. According to the semiotic theory, language must be studied in itself, and Saussure suggests that
the study of language must be situated within the larger province of Semiology, the science of signs. Semiology understands that a word’s meaning derives entirely from its difference from other words in the sign system of language (eg: rain not brain or sprain or rail or roam or reign). All signs are cultural constructs that have taken on their meaning
through repeated, learned, collective use. The process of communication is an unending chain of sign production which Peirce dubbed “unlimited semiosis”. The distinctions of symbolic, iconic and indexical signs, introduced by the literary theorist Charles Sande Peirce is also a significant idea in Semiology. The other major concepts associated with
semiotics are “denotation” (first order signification) and “connotation” (second order signification). Structuralism was anticipated by the Myth Criticism of Northrop Frye, Richard Chase, Leslie Fiedler, Daniel Hoffman, Philip Wheelwright and others which drew upon anthropological and physiological bases of myths, rituals and folk tales to restore
spiritual content to the alienated fragmented world ruled by scientism, empiricism and technology. Myth criticism sees literature as a system based or recurrent patterns. The French social anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss applied the structuralist outlook to cultural phenomena like mythology, kinship relations and food preparation. He applied the
principles of langue and parole in his search for the fundamental mental structures of the human mind. Myths seem fantastic and arbitrary yet myths from different cultures are similar. Hence he concluded there must be universal laws that govern myths (and all human thought). Myths consist of 1) elements that oppose or contradict each other and
2) other elements that “mediate” or resolve those oppositions (such as trickster / Raven/ Coyote, uniting herbivores and carnivores).
He breaks myths into smallest meaningful units called mythemes. According to Levi-Strauss, every culture can be understood, in terms of the binary oppositions like high/low, inside/outside, life/death etc., an idea which he drew from the philosophy of Hegel who explains that in every situation there are two opposing things and their resolution, which
he called “thesis, antithesis and synthesis”. Levi-Strauss showed how opposing ideas would fight and also be resolved in the rules of marriage, in mythology, and in ritual.

In interpreting the Oedipus myth he placed the individual story of Oedipus within the context of the whole cycle of tales connected with the city of Thebes. He then identifies repeated motifs and contrasts, which he used as the basis of his interpretation. In this method, the story and the cycle part are reconstituted in terms of binary oppositions like
animal/ human, relation/stranger, husband/son and so on. Concrete details from the story are seen in the context of a larger structure and the larger structure is then seen as an overall network of basic dyadic pairs which have obvious symbolic, thematic and archetypal resonance. This is the typical structuralist process of moving from the particular
to the general placing the individual work within a wider structural content. A very complex binary opposition introduced by Levi-Strauss is that of bricoleur (savage mind) and an engineer (true craft man with a scientific mind). According to him, mythology functions more like a bricoleur, whereas modern western science works more like an engineer
(the status of modem science is ambivalent in his writings). In Levi-Strauss’s concept of bricolage, what is important is that the signs already in existence are used for purposes that they were not originally meant for. When a faucet breaks, the bricoleur stops the leak using a cloth, which is not actually meant for it. On the other hand the engineer
foresees the eventuality and he would have either a spare faucet or all the spanners and bolts necessary to repair the tap. Derrida, the poststructuralist, opposes Levi-Strauss‘s concept of bricolage in his Structure, Sign and Play, saying that the opposition of bricolage to engineering is far more troublesome that Levi-Strauss admits and also the
control of theory and method, which Levi-Strauss attributes to the engineer would seem a very strange attribution for a structuralist to make. Roland Barthes, the other major figure in the early phase of structuralism (later he turned to Post Structuralism), applied the structuralist analysis and semiology to broad cultural phenomena. His work
embodies transition from structuralist to poststructuralist perspectives. Certain works of his have a Marxist perspective and some others deal with the concept of intertextuality, a coinage by his student and associate Julia Kristeva. His early works like Writing Degree Zero (1953) and Mythologies (1957) derived inspiration from Saussure, Sartre and
Brecht. His structuralist works include Elements of Semiology (1964), Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives (1966), Death of the Author (1968), and S/Z (1970). From Work to Text, The Pleasure of the Text are some of the seminal poststructuralist works. In Mythologies he examines modern France from the standpoint of a cultural
theorist. It is an ideological critique of products of mass bourgeois culture, like soaps, advertisements, images of Rome etc., which are explained using the concept of ‘myth’. According to Barthes, myth is a language, a mode of signification. He reiterates Saussure’s view that semiology comprises three terms: signifier, signified and sign, in which sign
is a relation between the signifier and signified.
The structure of myth repeats this tri-dimensional pattern. Myth is a second order signifying system illustrated by the image of the young Negro in a French uniform saluting the french flag, published as the cover page of the Parisian magazine, Paris Match, which reveals the myth of French imperialism at the connotative level. Roland Berthes
underlies that the very principle of myth is “to transform history into nature”. Ideology and culture as kinds of propaganda work best when they are not recognized as such because they contribute to the construction of what people think of as “common sense.” Barthes‘ Death of the Author (1968) reveals his deconstructionist and antihumanist
approach as it deposes the Romantic idea of an author, symbolically male and end of all meanings. The death of the author is followed by the birth of the reader; not just the reader but the scriptor, an idea which has echoes of Eliot’s theory of impersonality. In his S/Z (a book which sits on the fence between structuralism and poststructuralism)
Barthes’ method of analysis is to divide the story (Balzac’s (Sarrasine) into 561 lexias or units of meaning, which he classifies using five ‘codes’: Proairetic, hermeneutic, cultural, semic and symbolic, seeing these as the basic underlying structure of all narratives. In this book appears the substantial reference to the readerly (lisible) and writerly
(scriptable) texts. In The Pleasure of the Text he distinguishes between plaisir (pleasure) and jouissance (bliss). The complexity and heterogeneity of structuralism, which is reflected even in the architecture of this period (eg., structuralist artefacts like Berlin Holocaust Memorial, Bank of China Tower, etc) paved the way to poststructuralism which
attacked the essentialist premises of structuralism. Poststructuralism argues that in the very examination of underlying structures, a series of biases are involved.
Structuralism has often been criticized for being ahistorical and for favouring deterministic structural forces over the ability of people to act. As the political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s (especially the student uprising of May 1968) began affecting the academy, issues of power and political struggle moved to the centre of people’s attention. In
the 1980s deconstruction and its emphasis on the fundamental ambiguity of language—rather than its crystalline logical structure—became popular, which proved fatal to structuralism. Categories: UncategorizedTags: 8.25 Geneva to Paris Express, A. J. Greimas, barthes, bricolage, Cinderella, Claude Levi-Strauss, Colin MacCabe, Course in General
Linguistics, CS Peirce, David Lodge, derrida, diachronic, Frank Kermode, Gerard Genette, Good Morrow, intertextuality, Jacques Derrida, Langue, Linguistics, Literary Theory, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky, Parole, Rene Magritte, Robert Scholes, Roland Barthes, Saussure., Semiotics, signified, signifier, Sleeping Beauty, Snow
White, Structuralism, Structuralist Narratology, synchronic, Terence Hawkes, This is Not a Pipe, Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Working with Structuralism What is Structuralism?Structuralism is general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by the way of their relationship to a broader
system. It uncovers the framework upon which a society is established, which includes all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. Simon Blackburn defined structuralism as "the belief that phenomena of human life are not to be understood except through their interrelations.

These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure" The structuralist mode of reasoning has been applied for a long-time in a range of fields, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism etc. Who Formed Structuralism Theory?
Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, semiotician, and philosopher one of the founders of 20th century linguistics propounded the structuralist theory also known as structuralism. Sanusi (2012:125) explained that Saussure never consciously formulated the theory of structuralism, it was his lecture notes which his students re-collected and
published afterwards. Structuralism was born and bred in France and inaugurated by the cultural anthropologist, Claude Levi Strauss, who owed debt to the real founding father of the movement, Ferdinand de Saussure. Sanusi (2012) quoting Bello-Kano (2002) literature in structuralism is treated as science of signs, a system of codes and the
possible conditions of the functions of that system. Saussure was not interested in what people actually say but in the structure which allows them to say it. He succeeded in bracketing the question of reference, the relation between word and concept.When and why was the Structuralist Theory Formed? Saussure (1857-1913) structural theory
propounded three related concepts:1. A distinction between langue (an individual language idealized) and parole (speech used in community). Saussure in his course in General Linguistics (1974) sees language as a system of sign, that the signs is the basic unit of meaning, and the sign comprises signifier and signified. For him, signs are arbitrary.
This distinction for Saussure do not refer to a name or a thing but to that between word, image, and the concept.2. Languages have different words to refer to the same objects. Or concept.
If words according to Saussure stood for pre-existing entities, they would all have exact equivalents in meaning from one language to the next. They are all arbitrary.3. Signs (anything that communicates something, usually called a meaning) gain their meaning from their relationships and contrasts with other signs.Sanusi (2012:127) According to
Barthes (1972:201) "meaning is offered by use of language not only structurally shifts but can (and be) shifted" In literature, language as an object has more than a similarity with it. It sees individual work as an autonomous system. When a reader is working on a work of art, he will not be concerned with hidden meanings but concerned with the
relationship between the various levels of meaning, with the multiplicity the text enjoys. The reader does the work of 'super position and figuration' of the novel so that the novel may in its plot and characterization enact the dominant shape of a particular figure of speech, or a pattern of system. Structuralism proposes that there is no such thing as
objective reality in literature meaning here is created by internal relationships, stresses, and patterns they set amongst themselves.Structuralist Theory in LiteratureA structuralist theorist is primarily concerned with finding patterns, symbols, layers of narrative, the framework of the plot, or similarities in content with previously published works.
Structural criticism deals with finding patterns and sequences that reoccur in previously published texts. Claude Levi-Strauss sown early seeds of structuralism in literature.
Claude applied the structuralist mindset on the myth of Oedipus through binary principle. He compared the Greek myth Oedipus with the city of Thebes. According to him, Oedipus had no meaning unless compared with the city of Thebes. Claude did the comparison by contrasting the superstructure of certain recurring fundamental oppositions in
Greek myths: animal/human, strange/relation, husband/ wife, male/female, art/life, town, and country etc.Works of a Structuralist Critics1. To analyze prose narratives, relating the text to some larger containing structure such as: the conventions of a particular literary genre,· A network of intertextual connections;· A projected model of an underlying
universal narrative structure;· A notion of narrative as a complex of recurrent patterns or motifs.2. They interpret literature in terms of range of underlying parallels with the structures of language. For instance Levi-Strauss posited the notion of ‘mytheme’ which means a minimal units of a narrative 'sense' is formed on the analogy of the morpheme.
An example of a morpheme is the '-ghị' added to Igbo verbs to form negation or '-la' added to Igbo verbs to form past participle.3. A structuralist analyses a literary texts by ignoring the authors, their history, individuality of the text itself, and anything personal. 4. A structuralist uses Saussure's linguistics theory and semiotic theory to analyze a work
of literature. 5. A structuralist identifies, categories, correlated motifs in a work of literature. Major Contributors of the Structuralist Theory Gang of four of structuralism is considered to be Levi-Strauss, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, and Michael Foucault. Their works originates from Ferdinand de Saussure work of structuralism. Here are names of
those who contributed to structuralism and their works. 1. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). He laid the foundation upon which the theory of structuralism is formed. His book 'Course in General Linguistics' gave many language scholars a new perspective about literature. Saussure propounded the signifier and signified, a concept in structuralism,
deconstruction, and other literary theories.2. Claude Levi-Strauss. He contributed greatly to the structural theory. One of his major achievement is the application of structuralist interpretation to the Greek myths, especially Oedipus. He examined kinship systems in his 1949 volume “The Elementary Structures of Kinship" from the structuralist point
of view and demonstrated how different social structures were different arrangement of a few basic kinship structures. In 1950s, he published a collection of essays outlying his program for structuralism titled "Structural Anthropology".3. Roland Barthes (1915-1980). Barthes contributed heavily to the structuralist theory. He studied fashion, popular
culture, and mythology in the light of structuralism. He also wrote "Introduction to Structural Analysis of Narrative" Which is concerned with examining the correspondence between the structure of a sentence and that of a larger narrative. Barthes explained that function are the basic piece of a work, such as a single descriptive word that can be
used to identify a character. The character word that can be used to identify a character.
The character would be an action which is one of the elements that make up a narrative.4. Jonathan Culler. Culler focused on discovering unity in text. Though his celebrated work puts various aspects of structuralist theory in front of the readers with clarity in structuralist poetics. Langue for him becomes competence and parole turns into
performance. He looks for skills of a skilled reader i.e. patterns in interpretations of texts rather than looking for them in the writer's endeavor.What Others Have Said About Structuralism (Post-structuralism)There were forms of rebellion against the structuralist theory.
Some were for and against the theory, while others in favour of the theory transitioned to post-structuralism. Post-structuralism became as a result of rebellion against the structuralist theory. This theory is engaged with the task of 'deconstructing' the text. It is reading the text against itself.
That is revealing what the text is not literally showing. It is more of an attitude of the mind. It reveals the unconscious dimension of the text. J.A Cuddon, in his "Dictionary of Literary Terms" explain deconstruction by explaining a text can be read as saying something quite different from what it appears to be saying. Post-structuralist accuse
structuralist of not following through the implications of the views about language on which their intellectual system is based. Structuralist view is that language does not just reflect or record the world, it shapes it. What Post-structuralist do1. They read the text against itself so as to expose what might be thought of as the textual subconscious,
where meanings are expressed which maybe directly contrary to the surface meaning.2. They fix upon the surface features of the world's similarities in sound, root meanings of the words, and bring these to the foreground, so that they become important to the overall meaning. 3. They seek to show that the text is characterized by disunity rather than
unity.4. They concentrate on a single passage and analyze it so intensively that it becomes impossible to sustain a 'univocal' reading and the language explodes into multiplicities of meaning. 5. They consider text discontinuity as a 'fault lines'.Distinction between Structuralism and Post-structuralismBy the late 1960s, the structuralist theory came
under attack by individuals such as Michael Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Louis Althusser. These theorist eventually came to be referred as post-structuralist. Here are differences between the structuralist and post-structuralist theory.The Structuralist1. Makes use of binary opposition such as male/female, signifier/signified, east/west etc. These
terms are often arranged in order of hierarchy.2. To show textual unity and coherence.3. Reflection/repetition.4. Parallels/echoes.5. Symmetry.6. Contrast.The Post-structuralist1. Rejects structuralist notion that the dominant word in a pair is dependent on its interior or counterparts.2. To show textual
disunity.3. Conflicts.4. Contradictions/paradox.5. Absences/omissions 6. Linguistics quirks.A Structural Analysis of the Novel Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere by D.N Achara Introduction This study aims at analyzing the structure of D.N Achara's novel Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere. Structure plays an important role in a literary work which place side by side the plot and
other elements of the story to make the narration comprehensible to the readers and also to reach for the meaning which the writer wants to convey. Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere was first published in 1964. This analysis reveals the author's intention of fabricating the story through its theme, conflict, context, and setting. A literary text tells a story to
entertain through fictional work. It offers aesthetic pleasure as well as political messages or briefs.
Literature covers all literary terms such as poetry, novels, drama, short stories, prose etc. This analysis shows how structuralism helps the author to convey his message to the readers. Method of Analysis I am applying the theory of structural analysis and a meticulous close reading of the text to analyze the novel Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere and collect the
results about the following basic elements:1. The author2. Findings and discussion · The title · Plot summary · The themes and premise · The characters· The climax · The conflict· The context and setting · Moral values · Conclusion · ReferenceCriticism of the Novel Elelịa Na Ihe O MereThe authorD. N Achara is the writter of Igbo second novel known
as Alabingo in 1937 after the publication of the first Igbo novel "Omenụkọ" in 1933. Achara was a teacher in Methodist Collage, Ụzọakọlị. Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere is a moral story. The background depict a world of poverty, adversities, and difficulties.
The action takes place in different locations in the novel. Through the characters in the novel, the author portrays the reward of steadfastness, kindness, wisdom, pride, and subjection.The title The title of a literary work is very important in structural analysis. Here are few questions to ask about the name in the title as well as meaning of the title as a
whole.1. What does the story title mean?2. Does the title raise any suspense?3. The name on the title, is it a male or a female name?4. What does the name imply? 5. Is there any connection between the name and the story's development?All of the above questions can be answered using Roland Barthes structural coding of discourse. The hermeneutic
code in Barthes' coding structure give answer to the above puzzles. The novel title is translated to "Elelịa and his deed". The novel title creates suspense in the mind of intending readers, as they would want to discover the things Elelịa deed.
Elelịa is a name.
A proper name. It is an Igbo name. Cultural code in Barthes' structural coding suggests to the readers that Elelịa is a male given Igbo name which will be obvious to any Igbo speaker as the name means "elelịa nwa ite ọ gbọnyụọ ọkụ" p.g 62 translated as "when you look down on a small thing, it will surprise you by its act”. This information is in line
with the deeds of Elelịa in the novel. It also tarries with how the author addressed Elelịa's gender "a boy" (... Otu nwa nwoke aha ya bụ Elelịa) pg. 1. The wicked king Amaghị-ihe-ọma belittled Elelịa and sent him on a mission he feels will take the life of Elelịa. In fact, the story's title summarizes what the novel is all about.Plot Summary Elelịa Na Ihe O
Mere is a story about a little boy called Elelịa and his community king, Amaghị-ihe-ọma, whose name means "one who does not do good" Elelịa is from Asan located in Cross River State, Nigeria. He is the only child of his parents Mr. and Mrs. Ukpabi. Elelịa is depicted to have a lowly background. His parents are so poor that they could not afford to
give him a ceremony of initiation for his age grade. Sensitive to his poor background, he works hard from childhood to liberate himself and his parents from the grip of poverty.
This reason made him start explaining the meaning of people's dream to them, fishing, and hunting for animals in order to make ends meet. Elelịa remain kind and compassionate to everyone and animals. These earned him some help in the future as the story develops. On several occasions, Elelịa frees the animals his trap caught. His childhood
experience was not a bed of roses. King Amaghị -ihe-ọma, just like his name imply does not do good deed neither does he appreciate others good deed. He is full of jealousy for any one making progress other than him. His jealousy leads to his several wicked actions in the story. As Elelịa begins to make money from his endeavors, Amaghị -ihe-ọma was
very unhappy about the little boy's progress. As a king it is expected of him to rejoice in the progress of his ward because their progress is his progress, but Amaghị -ihe-ọma character is the opposite of what a good king should act like. Amaghị -ihe-ọma told Elelịa to come and leave with him that he the king will make Elelịa the head of his servants. All
of these is to trap Elelịa and also to stop paying for the meat he usually buy from Elelịa. What does this tells us?
The holy book explain to us that the heart of a man is deceitfully wicked. Amaghị -ihe-ọma came with deceit but Elelịa as a wise little boy did not accept the offer to live with the king. The king went further to employ all conceivable means to get rid of Elelịa but to no avail. That brings us to the Igbo saying " Enyi na enweghị ọdụ Chi ya na-achụrụ ya
ijiji" Literary translated as "the elephant without a tail, his God pursues flies away for it" One a certain occasion, the king gave Elelịa a coral bead to safeguard for him as it is precious to his first wife. From the story, Achara made us to know that the coral bead which is called "kalarị" was very precious and expensive. It is worn around the neck the
way jewelries are worn."... Ọ were kalarị nke isi nwaanyị ya nye Elelịa ka o dewere ya. Kalarị na nkamenyi bụ ihe ụmụ nwaanyị na-anya n'olu dịka otu a na-anya ọla edo taa. Ọ na-ada ọnụ dịka otu ọkpụrụkpụ ya hà. E rewe nke Amaghị -ihe-ọma nyere Elelịa, ọ ga-eru ihe dịka iri naira abụọ (N20)..." (pg.
6)The above excerpt gave us insight on the value of N20 money equivalent in Nigeria around 1964. Comparing the above value to today's Nigeria's economy, it worth absolutely nothing. Elelịa went and hid the coral bead in an inter-locking boxes to safeguard it. Amaghị -ihe-ọma transformed into a rat, went into the boxes and stole the bead from the
last seventh box where Elelịa kept it. Elelịa’s good was remembered. A bird helped him recover the bead from the belly of a fish.“Ugbua ka ihe ọma Elelịa mere gaje ịbara ya uru. Mgbe Amaghị -ihe-ọma tụbara kalarị ahụ na mmiri, otu nnụnụ ukwu nke bi n'ime mmiri ahụ kpụụrụ kalarị ahụ bịa ịidowe ya n'akụkụ mmiri ebe Elelịa ga-ahụ ya. Kalarị ahụ
dapụ ahụ ya. Otu azụ a na-akpọ atụma loo ya. Nnụnụ ahụ tụgbuo ya, buru ozu azụ ahụ jee busa n'akụkụ mmiri. Mgbe Elelịa na-akwobi ya, otu ihe dara Kịrịrị na lee otú kalarị si gbụgan n'ala” (pg. 10-12)Amaghị -ihe-ọma was unhappy that Elelịa escaped the death trap by recovery the bead, he then sent him on a quest to marry the beautiful daughter of
a witch whom others have tried to marry but was killed by the witch and their blood sucked. The tasks set up by the witch Nwoogo are incredible. It includes;· To consume a huge amount of food.· Stay in a fixed spot with a hug fire burning around it until all the fire burns out.· Retrieve the witch's ring from the sea.Failure to accomplish the
aforementioned tasks will result to the death of the suitor. Before Elelịa, all those that went to seek for the girl’s hand in marriage died in the process. Not one survived. The king indeed wants Elelịa to a journey to the land of no return. Elelịa as his name imply went, conquered, and came back victoriously and lived happier after. The themes and
premise This novel is built on different themes. The author's motif is to depict two contrasting characters in the novel and the reward for their actions. It's a comparison between the poor and the rich, arrogance and humility, kindness and wickedness, good and evil.
Here are the themes in the novel.l Wisdom: Elelịa displays wisdom throughout the novel. His wisdom helped him prevail over the wicked King Amaghị-ihe-ọma.l Perseverance: Elelịa endured all the wickedness of King Amaghị-ihe-ọma to him. Never for one day did Elelịa conspire to pay the king back with evil.
He kept showing him kindness.l Covetousness: Amaghị-ihe-ọma is a covetous king. He is also deceptive."...kama ọchịchọ ya bụ ihe nile dị mma bụrụ nke naanị ya. Ọ were malite ime dịka a ga-asị na ọ chezụọla ihe nile. Ma iwe digidere ya n'obi" pg. 5English translation"Instead all his desires is to have all the good things of life alone.
He begins to act like he has forgotten everything but his heart is full of anger “pg. 5l Favour: Elelịa found favour amongst human and animals. During his quest to journey in a faraway land to marry the daughter of a witch, he found favour in the sight of different creatures. They all helped him became the hero he is.l Heroism: Achara (1964:56)
identified the hero in his created protagonist, Elelịa. Elelịa is confronted with the jealousy of King Amaghị-ihe-ọma as it is expected of every hero to face difficulties and triumph at the end. The hero's mission could be to liberate or redeem a people' or go for a quest. Elelịa's mission is a quest in which he is expected to marry the daughter of a witch.
Elelịa is not portrayed as a fighter or a warrior unlike most heroes. He is portrayed as a meek young man who manifest a great deal of moral excellence. Elelịa, in all circumstances he finds himself manifested the fearless attitude of a warrior.
Although, Elelịa experienced internal conflict, he wasn't deterred by perils of his journey but encouraged."Mgbe ndị enyi ya bịachara kelechaa ya n'ihi ije ya, ma nụtachaakwa site n'ọnụ ya otu mmekpa ahụ jiri dakwasị ya n'ụzọ, ọ gwara ndị mụrụ ya na ya na-agakwa ọzọ, n'ihi na site n'ọtụtụ ahụhụ ọ dịghị mgbe ya nwere ike jeruo ebe ya chọrọ ije." (pg.
31)English translation"After his friends had welcomed him, from his journey, and learned from him the story of his experience on his way, he told his parents that he would get back to his journey as he has not completed it due to the difficulties he experienced"Elelịa took a lot of risks and embarked on a suicidal mission. He acquired external
superpowers in recompense to his good behavior and actions. The birds helped him discover the lost king's coral bead in the river, same bird put water into Elelịa's ear to assist him understand animal language. The crippled who Elelịa had long assisted rewarded Elelịa by giving him a charm that helped him restore his men that turned to animals
back to human form. In Achara (1964:54-55) Elelịa was rewarded. He got married to the beautiful daughter of the witch after overcoming different challenges.
This also explains that the universe are watching. They have a way to reward the good.l Oppressive system: King Amaghị-ihe-ọma oppressive actions against Elelịa represent an oppressive system in the society. Elelịa's perception of that system represent also society's perception of it. The death of such a wicked ruler represent the end of oppressive
system.The charactersEvery character in this novel has symbolism. The symbolic code of each character contributes immensely to the overall development of the plot. l Main charactersElelịa and Amaghị-ihe-ọma are the main characters in the novel. Both are contrasting characters. ElelịaAmaghị-ihe-
ọma1. Poverty Wealth 2. Humility Arrogance 3. Mercy and kindness Wickedness 4. Oppressed Oppressive system Poverty: Elelịa came from a poor background. The following excerpt explains that."Ebe ọ bụ na Elelịa dara mgbeyi, ọ dịghị ihe ndị ala ahụ na-emere ụmụ ha ndị ikom nke na ya mere ya" pg. 1Wealth: Achara pointed out that King Amaghị-
ihe-ọma is not a poor king. He is rich."Ọgaranya ahụ were zụwakwa ya azụ na anụ " pg.
6Oppressed: Elelịa represents the oppressed under cruel leadership in the society. Oppressive system: King Amaghị-ihe-ọma represents an oppressive system. A system the society abhors. Amaghị-ihe-ọma character towards Elelịa portrays that.Humility, mercy, and kindness: Elelịa is known to be kind. Both animals and human can attest to his
kindness."Ma Elelịa bụ onye nwere obi ọma dị ukwuu" pg.
3Arrogance and wickedness: King Amaghị-ihe-ọma is the true definition of evil. It is expected of a king to be kind towards his subject. King Amaghị-ihe-ọma is the opposite of what a good king should act is like. On different occasions, he failed in his attempt. For instance, when he put a snake inside the bag of a blind man, instead of the snake killing
whom it was intended for it killed King Amaghị-ihe-ọma only child!l Minor characters The birds: D.N Achara ascribed human characteristics to the bird.
The birds helped Elelịa find the lost coral bead "Nnụnụ ahụ wee see n'elu mmiri kpọọ ya oku. Ọ chọrọ ịgba ọsọ. Nnụnụ ahụ kpọsie ya ọkụ ike" pg. 11Afọ-Afo, Anya-Anya, Atịmkpara, Okpu-nkọ-Ntị: Are all characters portrayed as human but are not human. The climax The climax of the story began when Elelịa went to marry the witch's daughter.The
conflict The conflict between Amaghị-ihe-ọma and Elelịa increase the development of the plot. The king's hatred led to turn of events.The settings Elelịa began his journey from Asan his village to Ekoi where he met dwarfs and Nwoogo the witch. He ended his journey by returning back to Asan."Otú obodo dị, aha ya bụ Asan.
Aha obodo a bụ Enyi kpụrụ ọdụ n'ala “pg. 1 & 22The moral valueElelịa Na Ihe O Mere is a novel that teaches whatever a man sows that he will surely reap. This is seen in the blind man's song " onye mere ihe ọma mere onwe ya, onye mere ihe ọjọọ mere onwe ya" pg. 3. Elelịa reap the good he sow while Amaghị-ihe-ọma experienced a great
downfall. Conclusion This study has revealed a two folded concept, how to analyze literary work using all details about Elelịa na Amaghị-ihe-ọma by explaining deep into the story's structural patterns. The story presents that literary works can be understood well through reading and analyzing the elements of story such as plot, theme, conflict,
setting, character, and climax.
The novel finally portrays the futility of life. Despite Elelịa being good, he died at the end. "N'ikpeazụ, Elelịa nwụọ" p.g 62ReferencesAchara, D.N (1964). Elelịa Na Ihe O Mere. Longman Nigeria.Barry, P (2002). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (2nd ed., pp. 34-43) Retrieved from �English Literature. (2002).
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