The Literary Theory Of Structuralism

The rendering of light and darkness associate perfectly with the play’s emphasis on the contrasts between love and hate, passion and death. The direct comparisons of similes and metaphors do not remain exclusive as Shalespeare begins to incorporate the hidden utilization of clever puns within his masterpiece.

Ever since slavery was abolished, there has been a continuous struggle in the United States between African Americans and Caucasians involving social class, poverty and equality. Although blacks have suffered terribly in the past, they are still commonly looked down upon and even placed in a lower class category. The struggle over slavery opened to flood gates to the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement and is still something we are overcoming as a Nation.

Prior to the work of Saussure, the study of language basically consisted of a track changes in the mode of using words. According to Saussure, this procedure ignores the central feature of the language.

Structuralism was founded by E.B. Titchener but only lasted two decades because of newer movements in the psychology; however it was still know as the first school of thought. Structuralism is a mode of thinking and a method of analysis practiced in the 20-centruy social sciences and humanities; it focuses on recurring patterns of thought and behavior, it seeks to analyse social relationships in terms of highly abstract relational structures. In other words structuralism is a study based on ones unconsciousness and observation, the things a person does, the way a person acts in his/her society, which is acted out

Griemas’ work Structural Semantic (1966) is an important work of structuralist narratology. He develops structural semantics based on Saussaure’s notion of binary opposition which he has called structural semiotics. For Griemas there always exists opposition to generate meaning. He declares that there are various sematic units that work in opposition. He called these as seme. And meaning comes out in the opposition between semes, for example, old/young; black/white; boy/girl etc. These semes function as actants (structural unit, neither a character nor a specific narrative event) to produce narrative. Griemas’ semes are based on Saussurean notion that form the basic formula, the rules and the underlying structure of language (langue). The semes express themselves as narrative and plots and stories in contexts (parole). Thus the semes in different combinations are stated in particular contexts to generate stories in particular contexts. In literary theory, the basic structure of the production of meaning through binary opposition is called signification. We often find the dual opposition or semes in a text or any piece of

The system of structuralism proposed by Sassure involves examining language as a system of individually interconnected units, the construction of meaning as a product of shared systems of signification (Seiler n.d.).

The historical use of the structuralist and behaviorist approaches to teaching and learning often left students without opportunities for meaningful interaction in the foreign language class. Students often had to learn by repeating words, phrases, and sentences which mostly did not meet the needs or learning styles of individual students. It also did not encourage meaningful communication or interaction which is key in a language class for developing and bettering the proficiency of language learner. Therefore, a post-methodological approach to teaching is considered the better way to teach in a foreign language class. This means that a teacher develops her best practice using his/her knowledge of the various methods.

Poststructuralism mainly criticizes the dependence of structuralism on tradition and opposes traditional structuralism to focus research on objectivity and rationality. It attempts to restore irrational tendencies, pursue from the logic, but produce non-logical results. There is seldom a coherent theory in the field of poststructuralism, but each theory begins with a critique of Structuralism. Take the documentary as an example, in the view of the poststructuralist theorists, there is nothing else other than ideology, and any objective and true claim is doubtful in the documentary expression. For many people, such a poststructuralist approach is disappointing. If the documentary cannot get any form of objectivity or authenticity, even full of "fiction" like other feature film, then, how does documentary confirm its identity and value? For the moment, the response of the theorists to this issue is not sufficient, but I am in favor of Carl's point of view. Carl (1996) argues that the theory of poststructuralism and postmodernism is untenable as a philosophy. Also, as a basis for political analysis and political action, it is a failure. The research on poststructuralism is political, because many poststructuralists believe that the world which people living now is just a social construct, and there are many different ideology promoters who want to be hegemonic. This is obviously not acceptable.

Despite the recent surge in the ecosystem strategies of firms in both the practitioners and academics sphere, our understanding of why some ecosystem orchestrators create and capture more value than others still remain incomplete (Adner, 2017). Prior studies have traditionally explained the performance of focal firms from either the structural properties of the ecosystem (structuralist perspective) or from the network/relational embeddedness of partners within the ecosystem (actor centric perspective). In this study, we provide an alternative explanation for the heterogeneity in the performance of focal firms by focusing on the architectural features of the ecosystem, which constitutes of technologies and actors interacting within the

Structuralism originated in the works of Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist in the 20th century. An attempt to study a specific whole as a complex system of interrelated parts, it soon came to be applied to many other fields. Structuralism is closely related to Semiotics and Saussure focused on the underlying system of language, ‘langue’ instead of the use of language. Yet, the discovery of ‘langue’ is possible only with an examination of parole, speech. Apart from favouring the synchronic development of language over the diachronic version, he also asserts that linguistic signs consist of a signifier and a signified. Hence, this approach is different from those that focus on the relationships between words and the objects they implicate.

The foundation of the structuralism movement began with the idea that this was new theory. The structure of influence came from a combination of three anthropologists. Levi Strauss took the ideas of Marcell Mauss and Emilie Durkheim and applied them to the structure of cultural anthropology. His argument was that few factors separate us from apes/other animals due to language, culture, and myth. The use of structuralism is a relatively new and highly controversial theory. “The Academy of Anthropology sees structuralism as elements of human culture and they must be understood in terms of their relations to a larger, over arching system of structure.” The school of phenomenology in Germany began from 1910-1930. Developed through Ferdinand de Saussure he proposed that languages were constructed full of hidden rules that practitioners know but are unable to articulate. The fundamental way of thinking about the world; this predominantly concerned with the perception and description of structures.

Structuralism is segment of social science and humanities. It focuses on recurring patterns of though and behavior. Psychology intergrades with philosophy in many ways. With the ideas and concept brought into play by British Empiricist from the 1600’s it open the gates to psychologist and their experimental minds such as the “father of psychology” Wilhelm Wundt. By the 1800’s E.B. Titchener created his perspectives on structuralism. He focused on human elements on conscious experience. Titchener primarily analyzed this process through the basic laboratory and introspective methods.

To view language as though it were an object, devoid of the social context of its creation and use, is to dislocate it from the field of human interaction within which language derives the full quality of its meanings

Structural linguistics is a method of analyzing languages, broken down into signs, both syntactically and lexically. Signs, in a structural context, are associations between concepts and means of expressing those concepts. Comparing opposed syntagma and signs in this exploded arrangement permits understanding of linguistic associations (syntax, etc.). By examining the paradigmatic relations between signs, and diachronic syntagmatic configurations (something Lévi-Strauss applied heavily in his theories about structural mythology), a basic objective understanding of the langue in question can be gleaned from examples of its verbiage.

This essay is an attempt to discuss the problems political parties in Zambia are facing by using structural-functionalist and their contributions to liberal democracy. The academic piece shall begin by defining the key terms; those being, structural-functionalist, political parties and liberal democracy. This will be followed by a comprehensive discussion of political parties, focused on, with examples, the Zambian scene. Lastly, a brief conclusion based on the discussion will be outlined.