Structuralism

1
Structuralism Semiotics

• Conclusion

2
Key words for Structualist and Semiotic
approaches

• I. Following language as a model
• Self-enclosed System with Basic Elements
• Binary Oppositions
• Universal grammar and Semantic Rectangle.
• II. Disclosing the deep/basic structure of a
  text, which is a (combination or selection)
  system of meaning composed of basic elements such
  as (next page)

3

• -- binaries, or semantic rectangles,
• -- roles/actant and functions, or narrateme,
• -- story and discourse,
• -- narrator- narratee,
• -- metaphor and metonymy,
• -- grammatical parts of speech, or lexemes,
• -- signs or signification on different levels
  (signifier and signified).

4
Questions

• Reductive? Disregarding meaning, textual
  complexities, or the authors intention?
• De-centering, dehumanizing?
• Do we really think in terms of binaries?
• Does Structuralism/Semiotics ignore social and
  historical factors?

5
Sociological Extensions and Uses of
Structuralism/Semiotics

• How is our social existence modeled after
  language as a system of relations?
• From work to text (textuality)
• From identity to system of relations
• From myth to ideology
• Myth -- the complex system of images and beliefs
  which a society constructs in order to sustain
  and authenticate its sense of being.
• From structuralism/semiotics to marxism