Structuralism

Key Ideas of Structuralism

• Its not a corse essence inside f things but rather meaning comes from the outside
• Meaning it is attributed to texts by the human mind and human experience 
• Arrived in UK and USA in 70's but was not welcomed by traditional critics who enjoyed studying texts
• Saussure was interested in how meanings were relational, e.g they aren't defined in isolation but in relation to other things e.g a mansion is bigger than a house, but not as grand as a palace 
• This works with paired opposites e.g male and female.  each designates the absence of the characteristics included in other, so that male can be seen as 'not female' and vice versa

• Difference in characteristics between males and females:
• Male: masculine , not emotional, aggressive, sexist, argumentative, football, talk less, strong
• Female: emotional, gossip, shopping, talk more, weak

Origins

• intellectual movement began in france in the 1950s
• roots in the work of de Saussure
• recognised in the work of Levi-Strauss & Roland Barthes

Structuralist Approaches

• Semiotics (Barthes)
• Binary opposites (Levi-Strauss)
• enigma codes (Barthes)

Binary Oppositions

• narratives are frequetly organised around binary opposite
• these oppositions take the form of significant contrasts used to create  a sense of difference or conflict 

Semiotics: The science of Signs

• Barthes suggested that meaning is communicated through signs, specifically the signifier and the signified.
• Denotations: what you see without applying meaning (signifier)
• Connotations: what you interpret/ meanings you apply  (signified)