Structuralism & Poststructuralism (1):

Linguistic (De-)Constructions of
Meanings and Subjectivities
1. Structuralism--Basic Concepts
2. Structuralist Reading of Narratives
3. Semiotics and "The Myth Today"
4. From Structuralism to Poststructuralism:
Binary Opposition & Deconstruction
Structuralism: Introduction
1. How does language produce meanings?
2. Structuralist Approach (1): basic pattern
and binary opposition
How is structure different from form?
How is New Criticism different from
Structuralism?
Outline
1. How does language produce meanings?
A. Language in Daily Language: Example 1
B. Different views of language: Example 2:
sign = signifier and signified referent;
-- Structuralist view
2. Structuralist Approach (I):Binary
Opposition and Basic Pattern
Example: 1, 2, 3, 4
3. From New Criticism to Structuralism
A. Language in Daily Language
the uncertainties of meanings.
The meanings of language are not inherent (
)They depend on the context.
Structuralism: Language is a system of relation
and difference.



White Horse is Not Horse.
Why?

Possible interpretations



-
1.
2.
3. Structuralism: is a sign; it refers to our
concept of white horse, but not the actual
horse.
De Saussure
sign = signifier and signified






The inclusion of the concept within the triad of
signification suggests that there is no natural or
immediate relation between the words(as a sign)
and the thing(actual white horse).
Signifier +

Signified

Referent

[] concept of

the actual
we refer
to (?)
Different Views of Language
A. In Chinese Philosophy

reference
:symbols?

the meanings referred to or

Different Views of Language
B. Structuralism: Meanings happen in language.
A rose is a rose, because it is different from . . .
grass
[ros]
[doz]
rose
(p. of rise)
Carnation
Different Views of Language
B. Structuralism:
Meanings happen in language.
A rose is a rose, because
-- its phoneme [o] is different from [ai] in [rise];
-- its morpheme [rose] is different that with an extra
morpheme [roses];
Its meaning is determined by the syntax or context it
exists in ; e.g.
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose . . .
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
The pillow rose and floated under her, pleasant as a
hammock in a light wind.
sign = signifier and signified
"The linguistic sign is arbitrary. It is unmotivated, i.e.
arbitrary in that it actually has no natural
connection with the signified."
-- e.g. The signs dog, chien, arbitrarily
refer to the concept of the animal dog.
-- Can be replaced by other signs;
-- Can create ambiguities.
-- What about Onomatopoeia, ? Are there
natural resemblances between the signs and what
they refer to? e.g. Cock-a-doodle-do, cocorico
& ; ruff & )
structural linguistics: Ferdinand de
Saussure (textbook chap 3 pp. 89-95)
1857-1913, Swiss linguist; one of the
founders of modern linguistics.
Major ideas:
1. The synchronic vs. the diachronic;
langue vs. parole
2. Language is a system of difference.
Meaning occurs in binary opposition
between two signs. (e.g. toy, boy)
3. sign = signifier and signified; the
connection between them is arbitrary.
Language as a system of
relation and difference
Relations: toy boy (sound),
table (noun; grammatical unit),
girl (antonym), etc.
Difference: binary opposition
I saw a girl in red. (syntagmatic relations)

I am a girl.
a boy,
a dog, (paradigmatic relations)
an ironing board.
Different Views of Language
de Saussure: synchronic studies of language
as a system of difference;
Roman Jakobson: meaning happens in
communication from sender to receiver,
determined also by the medium and code used.
Kristevas the semiotic: The language as
rhythms and drives supporting and disrupting
the logical/linear communication in language.
Atwood: Language as both social and self
constructions. (e.g. love and her narration)
Structuralist Approach (1):
Basic Objects of Study
Units:
Example phonemes

words

Princess, prince and a
stepmother

Rules: How to
combine into words

Select and combine
into a sentence.

combine into a fairy-
tale. (Snow White and
Cinderella are in
structure the same
story.)
Patterns of basic units;
--of selection and
combination
Structuralism: From Units & Rules to
Basic Structure of a Certain Langue
Langue or signifying
system :
Examples:
-- Literary work,
-- narratives (e.g. myth)
-- tribal or community
ritual (a wedding, a rain
dance, a graduation
ceremony)
-- "fashion (in clothes,
food, cars, etc.)
-- any kind of
advertisement

Structuralist Approach (1)
Structuralism: Examine the basic
elements (or basic units), which form the
basic pattern (or grammar) of each story.
Basic elements: + universal
(or common) grammar a scientific
approach to literature. e.g. binary
opposition


Practice I:

?
Binary opposition between and
between the speaker () and

1.
2. (
3. Speaker :
human
attempts to conquer the impossible
Practice I:
Variation (1):
?

source:

Another basic unit: Mythemes (or themes):
-- Liebestod (love death).
-- Conquering Nature: Prometheus

Practice I:
Variation (2):




Variation (3):
.


Practice II:
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
New Criticism:
-- ironic tension built around the concept
of jilting and weatherall vs. aging.
-- ambiguities produced in Grannys
mind.
Granny Weatherall: A Structuralist
Reading
binary opposition between being jilted and trying
to love and to keep;
Differences:
-- jilted by her lover her husband (who died)
-- keeps a farm house and all the children but not
Hapsy loses her youth and beauty,
-- loses touch with reality (without her knowing it)
but keeps her self-consciousness;
-- almost jilted by God keeps her dignity by
facing her death. (Her greatest loss is also a
greatest gain.)
Practice III:
The Oval Portrait binary opposition between
Living background-- night, delirium of the
speaker vs. clear narration of the past
abandoned castle:, vs. decoration rich but
tattered and antique;
Armorial trophies vs. paintings in frames of
rich golden arabesque
Image alive and soft vs. thick frame and the
tradition of vignetting

Practice 4
Cube Man Cube: Try to find out its
pattern and what different signs refer to.
e.g. signs of human bodily parts,
human tools, human actions; setting.

Cube Men Cube
by Cerrit van Didn
Beginning and ending: why different?
Cube Men Cube: ending

Cube Men Cube
Setting one: outdoor scene; one cube
appears.
Cube Men Cube
Setting two:grass (then with zipper);
Cube Men Cube
Setting three: domestic scene;
Cloud
Cube Men Cube
Setting four: outdoor again, smoking and
producing little cubes.
Cube Men Cube
Setting five: building facade
Cube Men Cube
Tools: zipper, camera,
national flag,
Human attributes: eye,
hand, photos,
Human Action:
taking photos, singing,
doubling, lifting one
flap after another,

Cube Men Cube
Action: swimming in a clothes-like sea,
smoking, birthing, fighting
Cube Men Cube
Human: buildings, money bill,
Tools: hand (fist), foot, stone, gun, machine
gun, cannon
Cube Men Cube: Interpretation
1. Theme:
gradual loss of nature; (e.g. nature zipped, in snow ball)
A story of human growth, connections(e,g, human tools;
doubling actions, extinguishing fire) and achievements,
which turns to have more and more conflicts (cigarette,
canon).
Form:
Human beings presented as cubes so that
1. Humans and their lives are simplified and de-naturalized just
a group of signs forming some patterns;
2. Humans with layers;
3. Merging of humans and objects (e.g. tea box; camera eye; bird
becoming one layer of a cube)
4. Background music light and beautiful, but can be militarist
songs, too.
From New Criticism to Structuralism: Search for the
common or the universal
Form
an entity with interrelated parts.

Structure: basic pattern
Pygmalion And Galatea,
by Jean-Leon Gerome, after 1881
From New Criticism to
Structuralism
New Criticism: set up studies of English
Literature as a discipline.
In the 50s, there are more attempts at
making English studies scientific and
objective. e.g. archetypal approaches;
Northrop Frye

spring summer autumn winter
comedy romance tragedy satire
Russian Formalism
1920s
From New Criticism to
Structuralism
Compared with New Criticism,
structuralist approaches to literature are
-- reductive;
-- more objective & scientific, does not rely
on common sense.
-- anti-Humanist
-- Form to Structure, (later multiple language
structures and the racial relations they
imply).
Readings for next week:
Structuralism: Historical development,
sections on Saussure and Assumptions
chap 3 (87-98; 100)
"Should Wizard Hit Mommy?"
Feel Free to read more.