Structuralism Literary Theory

STRUCTURALISM

Structuralism is a modern literary theory or movement developed by Ferdinand De Saussure (1857-1913). He was a Swiss linguist and philosopher who propounded new theory in the field of language which was later termed as Structuralism. He believed that language should be seen as social and cultural phenomena. Language and meaning are governed by langue and parole. 

BACKGROUND:

Everything in this world has some structure. Our solar system has its structure, our body has a structure, and our society has a structure. Nothing in this world is found without structures. Look at the following pictures. The brick has its own structure and the building too has its own structure.

In literature too we have structures. When we study drama, it is made of some important elements like plot, character, dialogue, thought etc. Plot too has its own structure as you can see in the following diagram:

So, structuralism is not a new concept. We have been studying structures in literature since long. But structuralism as a theory came into existence during the 1920s.

WORKS Vs TEXTS:

Before 1920s the critics used to interpret literature as singular works. For example, Wordsworth wrote ‘Daffodils’. This poem was considered as a work of art and it was considered as a close ended work. But after 1920s, we find a change in the critic’s approach towards literature. Now the novels, poems or plays were not considered as works instead they were now considered as texts. Works were taken as a physical object before 1920s. Now the texts were considered as linguistic structures. Texts have language and language is open to multiple interpretations. By understanding language, we may develop a lot of meanings out of a text. (Poem, play, novel) So texts are open ended.

WORKS (BEFORE 1920s)

1. Literature was taken as works of art before 1920s.

2. Literary works were interpreted considering the biographical, historical and comparative methods till 19th century.

3. Meanings were fetched from the literary works focusing on the work itself and the author. 

4. Works were closed ended and it conveyed limited meanings.

TEXTS (AFTER 1920s)

1. Literature is considered as texts after 1920s.

2. After 19th century the focus is more on the text, the author, his biographical details, his traditions, milieu are not of much importance.

3. In modern criticism, texts are more important and the text is considered as a linguistic structure.

4. Texts are open ended and it is open to multiple meanings.

THEORY OF STRUCTURALISM:

Ferdinand De Saussure taught linguistics at School of Advanced Studies in Paris (1881 to 1891). He also taught Indo-European linguistics and Sanskrit from 1901 to 1911 and taught linguistics at the University of Geneva from 1907 to 1911. His work ‘Course in General Linguistics’ (1915) brought about a new theory of structuralism in literature. Ferdinand divided language into two components:

1. EPISTEME: It is a construct of language. In order to know anything, one needs to learn language. One cannot escape from language. Even one cannot think without language.

2. LANGUAGE AS A STRUCTURE: If you examine any language, it has its own structures. For example, English language follows the structure of SUB-VERB-OBJ. The vowel “q” is always followed by “u” (queen, quarter, quality). One cannot use language using only consonants or using only vowels. 

Now Saussure has divided language into two components as under.

1. LANGUE: Set of rules. Words have certain set of rules which you can not violate. It is a tool.

2. PAROLE: The actual speech or the use of language. It means to use words in our language as per our requirements as per the contexts.

SIGN, SIGNIFIER & SIGNIFIED: Ferdinand de Saussure gave a new concept of sign. “Sign” means any word or a small unit of language. For example the word “chair” is a sign. Now this sign has two parts – signifier and signified. Signifier means the word which we read or the sound which we hear. “Signified” means the meaning which we derive after reading or hearing the signifier. So there is no fixed meaning attached to the words. “Signifier” is more important than signified because it is fixed, it does not change. Signified keeps on changing from time to time and from person to person.

So on the basis of the above discussions, Ferdinand concluded by giving following two major concepts:

1.  Language is arbitrary (subjective). Language and meaning is governed by culture, society, religion, tradition and so on. Let’s take an example. When someone speaks the word “TREE”, an image of a tree comes to our mind. But everyone will have different image. Some will think of an apple tree, some will think of a mango tree and some others will have an image of a banyan tree in their minds.

2. Language is binary. Meaning can be understood only by understanding the binary opposition of the words. Language is understood by comparing and contrasting. For example, we understand light only by knowing what darkness is.

MAJOR STRUCTURALISTS:

Apart from Ferdinand, there were a host of writers and thinkers who followed this theory of structuralism in Europe. They were Roland Barthes, Levi Strauss, Frank Kermode, David Lodge etc. American structuralists of the 1960s were Noam Chomsky, Charles Morris, and C. S. Peirce etc. 

CONCLUSION:

Hence, we may sum up the whole theory of structuralism in the following manner.

1. Ferdinand De Saussure is the father of the theory of structuralism.

2. 20th century literary criticism focuses not on the works (closed ended) but on the texts (open ended).

3. Texts are considered as linguistic structures.

4. Language is arbitrary and binary and hence texts can convey multiple meanings.

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