STRUCTURALISM

THINKING ACTIVITY

STRUCTURALISM

HELLO READERS,

                          Today's blog is about  Structuralism . Structuralism is a movement of thought in the humanities, widespread in anthropology, linguistics, and literary theory, and influential in the 1950s and ’60s. 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. Structuralist critics analyzed material by examining underlying structures, such as characterization or plot, and attempted to show how these patterns were universal and could thus be used to develop general conclusions about both individual works and the systems from which they emerged. The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was an important champion of structuralism, as was Roman Jakobsen. Northrop Frye’s attempts to categorize Western literature by archetype had some basis in structuralist thought. Structuralism regarded language as a closed, stable system, and by the late 1960s it had given way to Post-modernism.

In simple way language means the entire human potential for speech. Langue means the system that each of us uses to generate discourse which is intelligible to others, and the Parole is individual utterance.

SIGN=SIGNIFIER =SIGNIFIED 

Sign is anything that conveys the message .Singifier gives meaning in words or image and Signified is related with mental concept , what evokes in mind .

FOR EXAMPLE:

COW IS SIGN

SIGNIFIER IS FOUR LAGGED ANIMAL

RELIGIOUS BELIEF COW AS GAUMATA IS SIGNIFIED

                  Genette has given the concept of narratology. Mainly the five concepts were used by Genette  in NARRATIVE DISCOURSE : AN ESSAY IN METHOD.

                                  

                                              1] ORDER,

                                              2]FREQUENCY

                                              3] DURATION

                                              4] VOICE 

                                              5] MOOD 

1] ORDER :

Story arrangements are like this :

- murder occurs , event 1

- the circumstances of murder revealed to a detective ,event 2

-finally the murderer is caught , event 3

Example :

In this tv series first the murder happens Event -1 , then the detectives solves the case with the investigtion  finding out the reasons of the murder Event -2, then the murderer get caught that is Event -3.

2] FREQUENCY :

The separation between an event and its narration allows several possibilities .

Singular - An event can occur once and be narrated once ,

Iterative - An event can occur n times and be naratted once 

Repetitive - An event can occur once and be narrated n times 

Multiple - An event can occur  n times and be narated n times 

FOR EXAMPLE :

3] DURATION :

There are the two main elements of duration. first in ten years passed but in  a short narrative  time means the whole long story of ten or more years narrated in just few seconds or minutes .

FOR EXAMPLE :

In most of the Hindi tv serials we find the time leap. (i just took one examples coz the list is so long ).

4]VOICE 

SAMAY FROM THE TV SERIAL MAHABHARATA

Voice is concerned with who narrates and from where . it has four ways.

~Intra-diegetic , inside the text .

~Extra - diegetic , ouside the text 

~ Hetero - diegetic , narrator is not a character in the story .

5] MOOD 

 Genette said narrative mood is dependent on the distance and perspective of the narrator , and like music , narrative mood has predominant patterns. it is related to voice. Distance of the narrator changes with narrated speech , stransposed speech  and reported speech .

FOR EXAMPLE :

In the movie Sholay Suramabhopali  was narrating the different story rather than what actually happened .

[So here i tried to apply the theory of structuralism on some movies and tv serials , after reading my blog if you have any doubts or suggestion kindly write it down in the comment section.]

                                                                                                             THANK YOU...