"Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system."
A theoretical approach that studies the structures that underlie all cultural phenomena such as language, literature, music, and art.
Ferdinand de Saussure's linguistic theory: The study of language as a system of signs and symbols with arbitrary meanings.
Claude Lévi-Strauss's anthropological theory: The study of the underlying structures of human societies and cultures.
Roland Barthes's semiotic theory: The study of signs and symbols in culture and how they convey meaning.
Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory: The study of the unconscious and how it shapes our perceptions and desires.
Northrop Frye's archetypal theory: The study of universal patterns and symbols in literature and their cultural significance.
Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogic theory: The study of language as a social activity and the ways in which different voices interact and influence each other.
Gerard Genette's narratological theory: The study of how narratives are constructed and how they convey meaning.
Structuralist literary criticism: The application of structuralist theory to the analysis of literature, focusing on the underlying structures and patterns of meaning.
Post-structuralism: A critical movement that challenges the assumptions of structuralism and emphasizes the role of power, language, and subjectivity in shaping meaning.
Deconstruction: A critical approach that seeks to expose the contradictions and subversions within a text, often by highlighting its reliance on binary oppositions.
"It works to uncover the structural patterns that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel."
"Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is: 'The belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations.'"
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire."
"Along with Lévi-Strauss, the most prominent thinkers associated with structuralism include linguist Roman Jakobson and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan."
"French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, sparking a widespread interest in structuralism."
"The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, economics, and architecture."
"By the late 1960s, many of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a new wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and literary critic Roland Barthes."
"These theorists eventually came to be referred to as post-structuralists."
"Many proponents of structuralism, such as Lacan, continue to influence continental philosophy."
"As an intellectual movement, structuralism became the heir to existentialism."
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire, in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of linguistics."
"After World War II, an array of scholars in the humanities borrowed Saussure's concepts for use in their respective fields."
"French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, sparking a widespread interest in structuralism."
"Behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure."
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire."
"The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, economics, and architecture."
"The structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of linguistics."
"By the late 1960s, many of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a new wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and literary critic Roland Barthes."
"Many of the fundamental assumptions of some of structuralism's post-structuralist critics are a continuation of structuralist thinking."