Literary Criticism

Ghonwa Hammod

Dr. Ahmad Taha

Literary Criticism

27/3/2021

Structuralist View Towards Literature ( Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson , and

Roland Barthes) .

Structuralism of literary language focuses on the study of the meaning of

structure. Structuralist critics hold the idea that it is the structure of language that

decides the meaning of language. Structuralism derived its notion, that meaning

can be understood in terms of deep structure analysis, from the linguist Ferdinand

de Saussure. One of his major contributions to linguistics is his Theory of

Language, in which he formed a close system of signs identified by signifier

(sequence of sounds) and signified (meaning or sense). However, in literature, the

relation between the signifier and the signified becomes free, because the meaning

can increase or be enlarged endlessly. Accordingly, Roman Jakobson, Russian

semiotician, points out that the subject of literary study is not literature, but

literariness; it is the thing that makes any work a literary work. Therefore,

“Literariness” of language comes from the author’s artistic organization of

structure. He suggests that “literariness” originates from “alienation” which is a

kind of self-expressing and self-advocating on the part of the author. Jakobson

asserts that the form or structure, such as sound, rhythm, meter and syntax are
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responsible for attracting readers' attention. This, again, strengthens the conflict

between sound-image and the concept, thus creates an effect Jakobson calls

“alienation”. Roland Barthes, semiotician of French structuralism, is also

influenced by de Saussure's notion and, in turn, develops a systematic procedure to

reveal the power of institutionalized forms of meanings. He demonstrates that

Saussure's signified and signifier participate in a semiological chain, involving

both first-order signification and second-order signification. The first order,

denotation, describes the basic or literal meaning of a message, while the second

order, connotation, designates the cultural or ideological meaning of a message.

The theory of structuralism occupies an important position in literary theories

emerged in the 20th century, yet it dehumanizes literature and depicts it as a tool

for entertainment only.

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