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Structuralism
Structuralism identifies structures and
systems of relationships which endow signs or items with identities and meanings and shows us the ways in which we think. It has been applied to a variety of social and cultural phenomena. It is based on the realization that human actions and creations are based on an underlying system of conventions.
Ferdinand de Saussure
The pioneer of
structuralism is widely considered to be Ferdinand de Saussure. Course in General Linguistics Langue the system of language Parole A specific speech event
perceived the possibilities of using Saussures theories as a model for studying other phenomena. Vladimir Propp studied folk tales as structural units. Viktor Shklovsky estrangement and defamiliarization; story and plot Claude Levi-Strauss in Structural Anthropology used the paradigmatic approach; the structures of discourse that are latently or vertically embedded and can represented as binary oppositions. He found structures in myth point to the structures of the human mind which are common to all people and transcend boundaries.
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Yakovlevich
plot components of folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible plot elements. He analyzed over 150 Russian fairy tales; other researchers applied it fairy tales from other cultures.
31 FUNCTIONS
Propps first eight functions detail the villains
efforts to create a situation for which a hero might come to the rescue. (Absentation, abduction, violation, complicity) Functions 9-11 detail the beginning of the heros journey. Functions 12-19 include the hero is interrogated, The donor enters, Hero is led to the object of search, Hero and villain join in direct combat Functions 20-31 offer paths for the heros return and include the functions of punishment, transfiguration and the wedding (the happily-ever-
Villain
Donor
Helper
Princess
Dispatcher
False Hero
Absent father Interdiction Not pluck the rose Violation Plucking the rose Hero leaves Beauty leaves her home Task Revive the Beast Transformation The Beast is transformed Wedding Beauty and her prince can now get married
CINDERELLA
Villainy/Lack
Cinderellas ill-treatment Interdiction (by the dispatcher, donor, helper) Return before midnight Violation Misses the midnight deadline Beginning Counteraction The prince sets out with the slipper Liquidation He finds Cinderella Wedding Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after.
ALADDIN
The Hero Aladdin
Jasmine Her Father the Sultan The Dispatcher Genie and Jafar The False Hero Jafar
the monkey The Helper(s) Timon and Poomba The Dispatcher Nala The Princess Nala The False Hero - Scar
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
A French
anthropologist, wellknown for his development of structural anthropology and structural analyses of mythology. The Structural Study of Myth Myths from different cultures all over the world are similar. The specific myth is the parole while the
put together according to certain rules. These units form relations with each other, based on binary pairs or opposites. Smallest components of a myth mythemes. In his analysis of the Oedipus myth, he assigns numbers to the mythemes and analyses them paradigmatically. Oedipus high value to kinship representing a downscaling of the family.
CONCLUSION
Structuralism can be applied to a wide variety of
phenomena; here it has been applied to literary phenomena, anthropology, folkloristics and psychology. The smallest elements that make up any fairy tale are similar in every culture There is a specific event and a system of rules underlying it; structuralism helps us identify this system of rules. These elements transcend cultural, temporal and linguistic boundaries.
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