Structuralism & Semiotics

Presented by
Excel Emmeybelle A. Sumalo
STRUCTURALISM
What is it?
as a term, it refers to various theories across the
humanities, social sciences and economics many
of which share the assumption that structural
relationships between concepts vary between
different cultures/languages and that these
relationships can be usefully exposed and
explored.
More accurately it could be described as an
approach in academic disciplines in general that
explores the relationships between fundamental
principal elements in language, literature, and
other fields upon which some higher mental,
linguistic, social, or cultural "structures" and
"structural networks" are built.
 Cultural Text in a Structuralist Manner

CULTURAL CULTURAL CULTURAL

TEXT 1 TEXT 2 TEXT 3
 Meaning According to the Structuralists

• Meaning is not a private experience. Even though

the text has a meaning, that meaning is determined
by the structure of the language system in which
it occurs.
• A text is a product of the system, than a producer of
it.
• Meaning occurs through differences.
 Semiotic – Study of Signs

• Study of signs – [ Signifier + Signified]

• Our reality is made up of signs – “The social
construction of reality”.
• Signs carry larger cultural meanings
Through these networks meaning is produced
within a particular person, system, or culture.
This meaning then frames and motivates the
actions of individuals and groups. In its most
recent manifestation, structuralism as a field of
academic interest began around 1958 and
peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
 HISTORY OF
STRUCTURALISM
Where did it come from?
Structuralism first emerged as a
literary theory in France in the
1950s. Yet it was inspired and,
in its methodology , deeply
informed by the work of a 19th
century linguist by the name of
Ferdinand de Saussure.
The term "structuralism" itself appeared in the works
of French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, and
gave rise, in France, to the "structuralist movement,"
which spurred the work of thinkers in diverse fields
such as the historian Michel Foucault, the political
scientist Louis Althusser, the psychoanalyst Jacques
Lacan, as well as the structural Marxism of Nicos
Poulantzas.
DIACHRONIC LINGUISTIC
The study of the evolution of a
language overtime
- Previous linguistics
SYNCHRONIC
LINGUISTICS
The study of how a language
operates at a fixed point in time
- Saussure
 Cultural Text in a Structuralist Manner

TREE

NOT A BEE NOT A FLEA NOT A PEA

The conceptual part of
linguistic value is determined
solely by relations and
differences with other signs in
the langue

- Saussure, 1986
PAROLE
An individual utterance or
written word, phrase or
sentence

LANGUE

A linguistic system as a whole

 Structuralism in
Literature Theory
 Four Mithoi of Western Literature According to
Northrop Frye
1. theory of modes, or historical criticism (tragic, comic, and
thematic);
2. theory of symbols, or ethical criticism (literal/descriptive,
formal, mythical, and anagogic);
3. theory of myths, or archetypal criticism (comedy, romance,
tragedy, irony/satire);
4. theory of genres, or rhetorical criticism (epos, prose, drama,
lyric) (Tyson 240).
 Three important ideas for analyzing the sign
systems that permeate and define our experiences
According to Peirce:
1. “iconic signs, in which the signifier resembles the thing signified (such
as the stick figures on washroom doors that signify ‘Men’ or ‘Women’,
2. Indexes in which the signifier is a reliable indicator of the presence of
the signified (like fire and smoke);
3. True symbols, in which the signifier’s relation to the thing signified is
completely arbitrary and conventional [ just as the sound /kat/ or the
written word cat are conventional signs for the familiar feline]
 Sign Systems
The discipline of semiotics plays an important role in structuralist literary
theory and culture studies. Semioticians “apply structuralist insights to the
study of sign systems, a non-linguistic object or behavior that can be
analyzed as if it were a language.”
Specifically, “semiotics examines the ways non-linguistic objects and
behavior ‘tell’ us something.
Richter states that “semiotics takes off from Peirce – for whom language is
one of numerous sign systems – and structuralism takes off from Saussure
for whom language was the sign system par excellence”
What does Structural
Critics Do?
They analyse (mainly) prose narratives, relating the
text to some larger containing structure, such as:

(a) the conventions of a particular literary genre,

(b) a network of intertextual connections, or
(c) a projected model of an underlying universal narrative
structure, or
(d) a notion of narrative as a complex of recurrent patterns
or motifs.
 Questions asks when
utilizing Structuralism
as a Literary Criticism
 Typical Questions:
• Using a specific structuralist framework (like Frye’s mithoi) How
should the text be classified in terms of its genre? In other words,
what patterns exists within the text that make it a part of other
works like it?
• Using a specific structuralist framework, analyze the text’s narrative
operations. Can you speculate about the relationship between the
text and the culture from which the text emerged? In other words,
what patterns exist within the text that make it a product of a larger
culture?
 Typical Questions:
• What patterns exist within the text that connect it to the larger
“human” experience? In other words, can we connect patterns and
elements within the text to other texts from other cultures to map
similarities that tell us more about the common human experience?
This is a liberal humanist move that assumes that since we are all
human, we all share basic human commonalities.
• What rules or codes of interpretation must be internalized in order
to ‘make sense’ of the text?
 Typical Questions:
• What are the semiotics of a given category of cultural phenomena
or ‘text’, such as high school football games, television and/or
magazine ads for a particular brand of perfume, or even media
coverage of an historical even?
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 - Key takeaways

• Structuralism is a way of understanding culture and

meaning in the arts by relating the individual piece of art
(a novel, a painting, a symphony) to something larger.
• Structuralism comes from a branch of language study
called ‘structural linguistics’.
• Structuralism is explicitly anti-individual.
• Structuralism is about a shared structure of meaning.
• Binary oppositions are key to understanding a text.
 Example

Romeo and Juliet (published in 1597). The story is

beautifully written, of course. The language is memorable,
and productions are put on all over the world. But stripped
down to its bare essentials, the story is simple: ‘Boy meets
girl. They fall in love. They kill themselves.’ There is also a
parallel plot: ‘a conflict between two families’. The two levels
of the plot are interrelated and affect each other during the
course of the play.
 The Prologue provides the ‘structure' of the whole:

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we

lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where
civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of
these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose
misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their
parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their
children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic
of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here
shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Thank You for
Listening!