STRUCTURALIST

LITERARY
CRITICISM

As presented by:
Angelique Joy Virata​
STRUCTURALISM
Introduction​

Key Concepts

​Application

Assessment​
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“
THE TRUE NATURE OF THINGS
MAY BE SAID TO LIE NOT IN
THINGS THEMSELVES, BUT IN THE
RELATIONSHIPS WHICH WE
CONSTRUCT, AND THEN
PERCEIVE, BETWEEN THEM.

Terence Hawkes
”
Structuralism 4

INTRODUCTION
- everything in the world belongs to a larger
structure
- study of items in relation with other objects
and the context of the larger structure to
which they belong

- First suggested by Ferdinand de Saussure (Swiss

linguist)
- no word can have an independent definition
(contingent on other words)
- Introduced concepts of the system of signs,
and langue and parole
Structuralism 5

INTRODUCTION
- Used by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to
study kinship, rituals, and myths
- Reduce information about cultural systems
to essentials and to the relationships among
their elements
- According to Strauss, myths through the
world are transformations of each other.
Structuralism 6

KEY CONCEPTS

-SIGNS
- base unit of a system introduced by Saussure
-comprised of signifier (acoustic image) and
signified (concept)
Presentation title 7
Structuralism 8

KEY CONCEPTS
-langue
-system of internalized, shared rules governing a
national language’s vocabulary, grammar, and sound
system

-parole
- actual oral and written communication by a
member or members of a particular speech
community
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KEY CONCEPTS
BINARY OPPOSITION
- pair of terms or concepts which appear to be
opposite in meaning
- “each unit is defined against what it is not”
-e.g. night/day, life/death, upper-class/lower-
class, man/woman

The meaning of a word is imposed by human minds

and ideas  arbitrary
Structuralism 10

KEY CONCEPTS
- find the patterns, symbols, layers of the
narrative, the framework of the plot, or
similarities in the content with
previously published works
Structuralism
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APPLICATION
Everyday Use by Alice Walker (novelist, short story
writer, poet, activist)

-Everyday Use as representation of African-

American life in the USA in the 1970s and 80s, short
story, realism, African-American literature
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12

APPLICATION
-linear plot structure, use of narrative techniques such
as backstory

-social themes: race, meaning of heritage

- Binary opposition: pretty VS ugly, mother/daughter,

modern VS traditional, poverty VS success, educated
VS uneducated, hang VS use
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ASSESSMENT
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

• Easily observable • Language and meaning are

cultural
• Can discern observable patterns
or tropes throughout society or • Interpretations of signs can be
cultures subjective

• Establishes links between • Understanding patterns or

cultures and texts connections in texts is not
necessary to see what makes
• Enhances familiarity with texts literature great or significant
of similar structures
THANK YOU