Structuralism as a Critical Theory

The author is no longer important, the author is "dead". Literature does not tell any truth about life. The author has to draw upon the immense dictionary of language and culture which is 'always already written'. It would not be misleading to use the term 'anti-humanist' to describe the spirit of structuralism. They emphasize their opposition to all forms of literary criticism in which the human subject is the source and origin of literary meaning.



The linguistic background: Saussure; "What is the object of linguistic investigation?" "What is the relationship between words and things?" The distinction between langue and parole, between the language system which preexists actual examples of language and the individual utterance. Langue is the social aspect of language; it is the shared system which we (unconsciously) draw upon as speakers. Parole is the individual realization of the system in actual instances of language. The proper object of linguistic study is the system which underlies any particular human signifying "5 practice, not the individual utterance. This means that, if we examine specific poems or myths or economic practices, we do so in order to discover what system of rules- what grammar- is being used. Saussure believes that words are not symbols which correspond to referents, but rather are signs which are made up of two parts; a mark, either written or spoken, called "a signifier" and a concept (what is 'thought' when the mark is made) called a "signified".

SIGN= Signifier/signified

Things have no place in the model whereas the old model is

symbol=Thing

The relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary. Language is one among many sign-systems, the system of such

systems is called 'semiotics'. Instead of asking questions

about the origins or causes of the prohibitions, myths or rites, the structuralist looks for the systems of differences which underlies a particular human practice. Roland Barthes: he recognizes that the language system may change, and that changes must be initiated in 'speech', nevertheless, at any given moment there exists a working set of rules, a set of rules from which all 'speeches” may be derived. For example, he sees the wearing of garments not as a matter of personal expression or individual style, but as a 'garment system' which works like a language. He divides 'language' of garments between 'system' and 'speech'.

SYSTEM SYMTAGM

Set of pieces, parts or 'Juxtaposition in the

details which cannot be worn same type of dress of

at the same time on the same different elements:

part of the body, and whose skirt-blouse-jacket'

variation corresponds to a change in the meaning of the clothing toque-bonnet-hood '

Vladimir Fropp:

1 .Functions of characters serve as stable, constant elements
in a tale, independently of how and by whom they are
fulfilled. They constitute the fundamental components of
a tale.

2 .The number of functions known to the fairy tale is limited (31)

3 .The sequence of functions is always identical.

4 .All fairy tales are of one type in regard to their structure.

The thirty-one functions, Propp finds, are distributed among seven 'spheres of action' corresponding to their 'respective performers' as follows:

* the villain
* the donor (provider)
* the helper
* the princess ( a sought, for person) and her father
* the dispatcher
* the hero
* the false hero

The last group of functions may be listed as

* A difficult task is proposed to the hero
* The task is resolved
* The hero is recognised
* The false hero or villain is exposed
* The false hero is given anew appearance
* The villain is punished
* The hero is married and ascends the throne

Greimas: Subject/Object

Sender / receiver

Helper / opponent

The pairs describe three basic patterns which perhaps- recur in all narrative:

1. Desire, search, or aim (subject/object)
2. Communication (sender/ receiver)
3. Auxiliary support or hindrance (helper/opponent)

*

Narratives may employ either of the following structures:

1. contract (or prohibition)-violation-punishment

2. contractual; lack of contract (disorder)« establishment of contract (order)

3.disjunctional; departure and returns

4. performative; tests, struggles ..

Tzevan Todorov; The minimal unit of narrative is the “proposition”, which can be either an 'agent' (a person) or a predicate (an action) the propositional structure of a narrative can be described in the most abstract and universal fashion.

X is king X marries Y

Y is X's mother X kills Z

Z is X's father

These are some of the propositions which make up the narrative of the Oedipus myth. For X read Oedipus, for Y Jocasta, for Z, Laius . The first three propositions denominate agents, the first and the last two contain predicates (to be king, to marry, to kill) Predicates may work like adjectives and refer to static states of affairs (to be a king), or they may operate dynamically like verbs to indicate transgressions of law and are therefore the most dynamic types of proposition. The smallest unit is the proposition then comes the sequence and the text, a group of propositions forms a sequence, the basic sequence is made up of five propositions which describe a certain state which is disturbed and then reestablished in altered forms. The five propositions may be designated thus,

* Equilibrium (peace)
* Force (enemy invades)
* Disequilibrium (war)
* Force (enemy is defeated)
* Equilibrium (peace on new terms)

Gerard Genette
# perspective and voice perspective (who sees the action) voice (who speaks the narration of it)
# order, duration, frequency
# fabula and sjuzet

The first category concerns the relation between the order of events in the fabula, which is always chronological, and the order of events in the sjuzet, which of course need not be. the second category concerns the relation between the putative duration of events in the fabula and the time taken to narrate them in the sjuzet (therefore to read the narration), which may be longer or shorter or approximately the same. The third category concerns the relationship between the number of times an event occurs in the fabula and the number of times it is narrated in the sjuzet.


Roman Jacobson

Factors which are involved in verbal communication:

addresser content addressee

message

contact

code

The addresser sends a message to the addressee. To be operative the message requires a content, sizeable by the addressee. The message must be capable of being verbalized in a code; the code must be fully or partially common to the addresser or addressee. Contact is the physical channel or psychological connection between the addresser and addressee.

Functions of Language.

Each of these factors determine a function of language.

emotive: focused on the addresser; aims a direct expression of the speaker's attitude toward what he is speaking about. A man using expressive features to indicate his angry or ironic attitude conveys ostensible information, conative: focused on the addressee, it is vocative and iImperative referential: focused on the content, it is denotative and cognitive

phatic: focused on the contact; "Hello, do you hear me" x to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention.

metalingual: focused on the code, "I don't follow you, what do you mean” : metalanguage means speaking of language.

Poetic: focused on the message. This function should not be
reduced to poetry or poetry should not be confined to poetic function . Poetic function is only the dominant, determining function of verbal art but not the sole function. "I like Ike" /...L..k...k / The poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination, selection: if the topic of the message is child, the speaker selects more or less similar nouns such as kid, youngster...Selection is based upon equivalence, similarity, dissimilarity, synonymity, antonymty. combination: it is based on contiguity.

- Edited from reading notes of Critical Theory course; discontinuity might be possible.