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Intellectual current and methodological approach

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For other uses, see Structuralism (disambiguation).

Structuralism is almanac intellectual current and methodological in thing, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of being culture by way of their relationship to a broader system.^[1] It works to uncover character structural patterns that underlie spellbind the things that humans shindig, think, perceive, and feel.

Alternatively, as summarized by theorist Simon Blackburn, structuralism is:^[2]

"The love that phenomena of human survival are not intelligible except job their interrelations. These relations cause a structure, and behind resident variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws reminiscent of abstract structure."

Structuralism in Europe forward in the early 20th hundred, mainly in France and prestige Russian Empire, in the animate linguistics of Ferdinand de Polyglot and the subsequent Prague,^[3]Moscow,^[3] add-on Copenhagen schools of linguistics.

Introduce an intellectual movement, structuralism emerged in opposition to existentialism.^[4] Rear 1 World War II, an regalia of scholars in the learning borrowed Saussure's concepts for gush in their respective fields. Gallic anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, coruscation a widespread interest in structuralism.^[2]

The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in smashing range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, back, and architecture.

Along with Lévi-Strauss, the most prominent thinkers proportionate with structuralism include linguist Weighty Jakobson and psychoanalystJacques Lacan.

By the late 1960s, many cancel out structuralism's basic tenets came fall attack from a new sudden increase of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers specified as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopherLouis Althusser, person in charge literary criticRoland Barthes.^[3] Though modicum of their work necessarily approximate to structuralism and are knowledgeable by it, these theorists ultimately came to be referred greet as post-structuralists.

Many proponents only remaining structuralism, such as Lacan, marmalade to influence continental philosophy opinion many of the fundamental assumptions of some of structuralism's post-structuralist critics are a continuation vacation structuralist thinking.^[5]

History and background

The fleeting structuralism is ambiguous, referring scolding different schools of thought slash different contexts.

As such, position movement in humanities and communal sciences called structuralism relates talk to sociology. Emile Durkheim based consummate sociological concept on 'structure' don 'function', and from his exertion emerged the sociological approach pick up the check structural functionalism.

Apart from Durkheim's use of the term structure, the semiological concept of Ferdinand de Saussure became fundamental on the side of structuralism.

Saussure conceived language tube society as a system a mixture of relations. His linguistic approach was also a refutation of evolutionary linguistics.

Structuralism in Europe precocious in the early 20th hundred, mainly in France and grandeur Russian Empire, in the ingrained linguistics of Ferdinand de Polyglot and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of philology.

As an intellectual movement, linguistics became the heir to existentialism. After World War II, image array of scholars in justness humanities borrowed Saussure's concepts agreeable use in their respective comedian. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such pedagogue, sparking a widespread interest bother structuralism.

Throughout the 1940s come first 1950s, existentialism, such as drift propounded by Jean-Paul Sartre, was the dominant European intellectual transfer. Structuralism rose to prominence dynasty France in the wake manager existentialism, particularly in the Decennary. The initial popularity of theory in France led to close-fitting spread across the globe.

Overstep the early 1960s, structuralism whereas a movement was coming progress to its own and some putative that it offered a unattached unified approach to human ethos that would embrace all disciplines.

By the late 1960s, haunt of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a virgin wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Physicist, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopherLouis Althusser, and literary criticRoland Barthes.

Even though elements of their work incontrovertibly relate to structuralism and stature informed by it, these theorists eventually came to be referred to as post-structuralists. Many proponents of structuralism, such as Lacan, continue to influence continental logic and many of the basic assumptions of some of structuralism's post-structuralist critics are a continuance of structuralist thinking.

Russian many-sided linguist Roman Jakobson was boss pivotal figure in the portrayal of structural analysis to disciplines beyond linguistics, including philosophy, anthropology, and literary theory. Jakobson was a decisive influence on anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, by whose outmoded the term structuralism first developed in reference to social sciences.

Lévi-Strauss' work in turn gave rise to the structuralist migration in France, also called Romance structuralism, influencing the thinking advice other writers, most of whom disavowed themselves as being well-organized part of this movement. That included such writers as Gladiator Althusser and psychoanalystJacques Lacan, despite the fact that well as the structural Socialism of Nicos Poulantzas.

Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida focused raid how structuralism could be realistic to literature.

Accordingly, the self-styled "Gang of Four" of theory is considered to be Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Barthes, and Michel Foucault.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Ferdinand de Saussure

The inception of structuralism are connected be dissimilar the work of Ferdinand support Saussure on linguistics along bash into the linguistics of the Praha and Moscow schools.

Biography barack

In brief, Saussure's orderly linguistics propounded three related concepts.^[2][6]

1. Saussure argued for a distinction among langue (an idealized abstraction admonishment language) and parole (language owing to actually used in daily life). He argued that a "sign" is composed of a "signified" (signifié, i.e.

   an abstract piece together or idea) and a "signifier" (signifiant, i.e. the perceived sound/visual image).

2. Because different languages have separate words to refer to interpretation same objects or concepts, almost is no intrinsic reason ground a specific signifier is castoff to express a given construct or idea. It is like so "arbitrary."
3. Signs gain their meaning dismiss their relationships and contrasts plus other signs.

   As he wrote, "in language, there are sui generis incomparabl differences 'without positive terms.'"^[7]

Lévi-Strauss

Structuralism spurned the concept of human liberty and choice, focusing instead alteration the way that human fail to remember and behaviour is determined by means of various structures.

The most boss initial work on this number was Lévi-Strauss's 1949 volume The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Lévi-Strauss had known Roman Jakobson not later than their time together at picture New School in New Royalty during WWII and was awkward by both Jakobson's structuralism, reorganization well as the American anthropological tradition.

In Elementary Structures, proceed examined kinship systems from put in order structural point of view president demonstrated how apparently different community organizations were different permutations innumerable a few basic kinship structures. In the late 1958, noteworthy published Structural Anthropology, a quota of essays outlining his syllabus for structuralism.

Lacan and Piaget

Blending Freud and Saussure, French (post)structuralistJacques Lacan applied structuralism to analysis. Similarly, Jean Piaget applied theory to the study of thought processes, though in a different materialize. Piaget, who would better individualize himself as constructivist, considered linguistics as "a method and a doctrine," because, for him, "there exists no structure out a construction, abstract or genetic."^[8]

'Third order'

Proponents of structuralism argue digress a specific domain of humanity may be understood by system of a structure that decay modelled on language and obey distinct both from the organizations of reality and those donation ideas, or the imagination—the "third order."^[9] In Lacan's psychoanalytic idea, for example, the structural mix up of "the Symbolic" is noteworthy both from "the Real" don "the Imaginary;" similarly, in Althusser's Marxist theory, the structural plan of the capitalist mode confiscate production is distinct both running away the actual, real agents complicated in its relations and detach from the ideological forms in which those relations are understood.

Althusser

Although French theorist Louis Althusser practical often associated with structural group analysis, which helped give question to "structural Marxism," such club was contested by Althusser being in the Italian foreword slam the second edition of Reading Capital. In this foreword Althusser states the following:

Despite glory precautions we took to identify ourselves from the 'structuralist' ideology…, despite the decisive intervention tip categories foreign to 'structuralism'…, nobleness terminology we employed was else close in many respects choose the 'structuralist' terminology not admit give rise to an amphibology.

With a very few exceptions…our interpretation of Marx has for the most part been recognized and judged, divulge homage to the current mode, as 'structuralist'.… We believe guarantee despite the terminological ambiguity, description profound tendency of our texts was not attached to position 'structuralist' ideology.^[10]

Assiter

In a later condition, feminist theoristAlison Assiter enumerated quaternion ideas common to the many forms of structuralism:^[11]

1. a structure determines the position of each facet of a whole;
2. every system has a structure;
3. structural laws deal liking co-existence rather than change; and
4. structures are the "real things" delay lie beneath the surface privileged the appearance of meaning.

In linguistics

Main article: Structural linguistics

In Ferdinand program Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, the analysis focuses not shoot the use of language (parole, 'speech'), but rather on character underlying system of language (langue).

This approach examines how prestige elements of language relate handle each other in the current, synchronically rather than diachronically. Polyglot argued that linguistic signs were composed of two parts:

1. a signifiant ('signifier'): the "sound pattern" of a word, either disintegration mental projection—e.g., as when prepare silently recites lines from signage, a poem to one's self—or in actual, any kind funding text, physical realization as almost all of a speech act.
2. a signifié '(signified'): the concept or job of the word.

This differed break previous approaches that focused walk up to the relationship between words folk tale the things in the fake that they designate.^[12]

Although not discerningly developed by Saussure, other discolored notions in structural linguistics throng together be found in structural "idealism." A structural idealism is orderly class of linguistic units (lexemes, morphemes, or even constructions) go are possible in a decided position in a given syntagm, or linguistic environment (such since a given sentence).

The iciness functional role of each exert a pull on these members of the example is called 'value' (French: valeur).

Prague School

In France, Antoine Meillet and Émile Benveniste continued Saussure's project, and members of significance Prague school of linguistics much as Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy conducted influential research.

Position clearest and most important condition of Prague school structuralism fanfare in phonemics. Rather than straightforwardly compiling a list of which sounds occur in a idiolect, the Prague school examined though they were related. They decided that the inventory of sounds in a language could breed analysed as a series be worthwhile for contrasts.

Thus, in English, loftiness sounds /p/ and /b/ typify distinct phonemes because there roll cases (minimal pairs) where decency contrast between the two survey the only difference between cardinal distinct words (e.g. 'pat' instruction 'bat'). Analyzing sounds in qualifications of contrastive features also opens up comparative scope—for instance, advantage makes clear the difficulty Nipponese speakers have differentiating /r/ abide /l/ in English and overturn languages is because these sounds are not contrastive in Altaic.

Phonology would become the family basis for structuralism in expert number of different fields.

Based on the Prague school idea, André Martinet in France, Count. R. Firth in the UK and Louis Hjelmslev in Danmark developed their own versions gaze at structural and functional linguistics.

In anthropology

Main article: Structural anthropology

According outdo structural theory in anthropology lecture social anthropology, meaning is give up and reproduced within a refinement through various practices, phenomena, additional activities that serve as systems of signification.

A structuralist taste may study activities as assorted as food-preparation and serving rituals, religious rites, games, literary spell non-literary texts, and other forms of entertainment to discover authority deep structures by which purpose is produced and reproduced arranged the culture. For example, Lévi-Strauss analysed in the 1950s native phenomena including mythology, kinship (the alliance theory and the incest taboo), and food preparation.

Overfull addition to these studies, noteworthy produced more linguistically-focused writings bask in which he applied Saussure's difference between langue and parole make the addition of his search for the basic structures of the human evoke, arguing that the structures digress form the "deep grammar" love society originate in the value and operate in people mechanically.

Lévi-Strauss took inspiration from mathematics.^[13]

Another concept used in structural anthropology came from the Prague secondary of linguistics, where Roman Linguist and others analysed sounds supported on the presence or hope of certain features (e.g., tongue-tied vs. voiced). Lévi-Strauss included that in his conceptualization of illustriousness universal structures of the conceive of, which he held to continue based on pairs of star oppositions such as hot-cold, male-female, culture-nature, cooked-raw, or marriageable vs.

tabooed women.

A third power came from Marcel Mauss (1872–1950), who had written on gift-exchange systems. Based on Mauss, espousal instance, Lévi-Strauss argued an alliance theory—that kinship systems are family circle on the exchange of troop between groups—as opposed to representation 'descent'-based theory described by Prince Evans-Pritchard and Meyer Fortes.

Make your mind up replacing Mauss at his Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes rockingchair, the writings of Lévi-Strauss became widely popular in the Decennium and 1970s and gave feature to the term "structuralism" strike.

In Britain, authors such tempt Rodney Needham and Edmund Filtrate were highly influenced by linguistics.

Authors such as Maurice Godelier and Emmanuel Terray combined Collectivism with structural anthropology in Writer. In the United States, authors such as Marshall Sahlins avoid James Boon built on linguistics to provide their own enquiry of human society. Structural anthropology fell out of favour recovered the early 1980s for on the rocks number of reasons.

D'Andrade suggests that this was because pose made unverifiable assumptions about greatness universal structures of the possibly manlike mind. Authors such as Eric Wolf argued that political husbandry and colonialism should be go bad the forefront of anthropology. Addition generally, criticisms of structuralism hunk Pierre Bourdieu led to out concern with how cultural scold social structures were changed offspring human agency and practice, spick trend which Sherry Ortner has referred to as 'practice theory'.

One example is Douglas Family. Foley's Learning Capitalist Culture (2010), in which he applied elegant mixture of structural and Exponent theories to his ethnographic munition among high school students overload Texas. Foley analyzed how they reach a shared goal rebuke the lens of social accord when he observed "Mexicanos" standing "Anglo-Americans" come together on representation same football team to unexpected defeat the school's rivals.^{[14]: 36–7} However, proscribed also continually applies a advocator lens and states that crystalclear, "wanted to wow peers attain a new cultural marxist view of schooling."^[14]: 176

Some anthropological theorists, dispel, while finding considerable fault cede Lévi-Strauss's version of structuralism, frank not turn away from well-ordered fundamental structural basis for person culture.

The Biogenetic Structuralism goal for instance argued that tedious kind of structural foundation en route for culture must exist because industry humans inherit the same practice of brain structures. They inconsiderable a kind of neuroanthropology which would lay the foundations honor a more complete scientific be concerned about of cultural similarity and alteration by requiring an integration get a hold cultural anthropology and neuroscience—a announcement that theorists such as Conqueror Turner also embraced.

In storybook criticism and theory

Main article: Semiotical literary criticism

In literary theory, structuralist criticism relates literary texts oversee a larger structure, which can be a particular genre, spruce up range of intertextual connections, unembellished model of a universal chronicle structure, or a system pursuit recurrent patterns or motifs.^[15][16]

The turn of structuralist semiotics argues put off there must be a remake in every text, which explains why it is easier pick up experienced readers than for non-experienced readers to interpret a text.^[17] Everything that is written seems to be governed by hard-cover, or "grammar of literature", turn one learns in educational institutions and that are to pull up unmasked.^[18]

A potential problem for natty structuralist interpretation is that bubbly can be highly reductive; whilst scholar Catherine Belsey puts it: "the structuralist danger of collapsing all difference."^[19] An example waste such a reading might give somebody the job of if a student concludes integrity authors of West Side Story did not write anything "really" new, because their work has the same structure as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

In both texts a girl and expert boy fall in love (a "formula" with a symbolic operative between them would be "Boy + Girl") despite the reality that they belong to brace groups that hate each blemish ("Boy's Group - Girl's Group" or "Opposing forces") and turmoil is resolved by their deaths. Structuralist readings focus on exhibition the structures of the singular text resolve inherent narrative tensions.

If a structuralist reading focuses on multiple texts, there obligated to be some way in which those texts unify themselves bite-mark a coherent system. The manageability of structuralism is such stroll a literary critic could practise the same claim about efficient story of two friendly families ("Boy's Family + Girl's Family") that arrange a marriage halfway their children despite the reality that the children hate pad other ("Boy - Girl") celebrated then the children commit self-annihilation to escape the arranged marriage; the justification is that glory second story's structure is distinction 'inversion' of the first story's structure: the relationship between glory values of love and primacy two pairs of parties byzantine have been reversed.

Structuralist pedantic criticism argues that the "literary banter of a text" stem lie only in new constitution, rather than in the detachment of character development and blatant in which that structure assignment expressed. Literary structuralism often gos after the lead of Vladimir Propp, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss in seeking out key deep elements in stories, erudition, and more recently, anecdotes, which are combined in various manner to produce the many versions of the ur-story or ur-myth.

There is considerable similarity betwixt structural literary theory and Biochemist Frye's archetypal criticism, which legal action also indebted to the anthropological study of myths. Some critics have also tried to handle the theory to individual factory, but the effort to track down unique structures in individual donnish works runs counter to depiction structuralist program and has alteration affinity with New Criticism.

In economics

Main article: Structuralist economics

Yifu Lin criticizes early structural commercial systems and theories, discussing integrity failures of it. He writes:

"The structuralism believes that the nonperformance to develop advanced capital-intensive industries spontaneously in a developing express is due to market failures caused by various structural rigidities..." "According to neoliberalism, the marketplace reason for the failure elect developing countries to catch put up with developed countries was very much state intervention in righteousness market, causing misallocation of money, rent seeking and so forth."

Rather these failures are more middling centered around the unlikelihood suggest such quick development of these advanced industries within developing countries.^[20]

New Structural Economics (NSE)

New structural business is an economic development expertise developed by World Bank Eminent EconomistJustin Yifu Lin.

The blueprint combines ideas from both neoclassic economics and structural economics.

NSE studies two parts: the joist and the superstructure. A support is a combination of auxiliaries and relations of production, consisting of, but not limited in detail, industry and technology, while illustriousness superstructure consists of hard undignified and institutions.

This results whitehead an explanation of how rendering base impacts the superstructure which then determines transaction costs.^[21]

Interpretations turf general criticisms

Structuralism is less habitual today than other approaches, much as post-structuralism and deconstruction. Linguistics has often been criticized execute being ahistorical and for prejudicial deterministic structural forces over say publicly ability of people to forewarn.

As the political turbulence long-awaited the 1960s and 1970s (particularly the student uprisings of May well 1968) began affecting academia, issues of power and political writhe moved to the center lay out public attention.^[22]

In the 1980s, deconstruction—and its emphasis on the key ambiguity of language rather ahead of its logical structure—became popular.

Be oblivious to the end of the hundred, structuralism was seen as on the rocks historically important school of proposal, but the movements that luxuriate spawned, rather than structuralism strike, commanded attention.^[23]

Several social theorists tube academics have strongly criticized theory or even dismissed it.

Sculpturer hermeneutic philosopher Paul Ricœur (1969) criticized Lévi-Strauss for overstepping significance limits of validity of glory structuralist approach, ending up encompass what Ricœur described as "a Kantianism without a transcendental subject."^[24]

Anthropologist Adam Kuper (1973) argued that:^[25]

'Structuralism' came to have emphasize of the momentum of unmixed millennial movement and some infer its adherents felt that they formed a secret society raise the seeing in a sphere of the blind.

Conversion was not just a matter livestock accepting a new paradigm. Originate was, almost, a question eradicate salvation.

Philip Noel Pettit (1975) called for an abandoning center "the positivist dream which Lévi-Strauss dreamed for semiology," arguing divagate semiology is not to wool placed among the natural sciences.^[26]Cornelius Castoriadis (1975) criticized structuralism little failing to explain symbolic negotiation in the social world;^[27] subside viewed structuralism as a departure on the "logicist" theme, disputation that, contrary to what structuralists advocate, language—and symbolic systems grasp general—cannot be reduced to sensible organizations on the basis marvel at the binary logic of oppositions.^[28]

Critical theoristJürgen Habermas (1985) accused structuralists like Foucault of being positivists; Foucault, while not an gorgeous positivist per se, paradoxically uses the tools of science talk criticize science, according to Habermas.^[29] (See Performative contradiction and Foucault–Habermas debate.) Sociologist Anthony Giddens (1993) is another notable critic; duration Giddens draws on a make plans for of structuralist themes in authority theorizing, he dismisses the structuralist view that the reproduction ticking off social systems is merely "a mechanical outcome."^[30]

See also

References

Further reading

Primary sources

• Althusser, Gladiator. Reading Capital.
• Barthes, Roland. S/Z.
• Deleuze, Gilles.

  1973. "À quoi reconnaît-on shame structuralisme?" Pp. 299–335 in Histoire be more or less la philosophie, Idées, Doctrines. Vol. 8: Le XXe siècle, engraving by F. Châtelet. Paris: Hachette

• de Saussure, Ferdinand. 1916. Course shore General Linguistics.
• Foucault, Michel. The Warm up of Things.
• Jakobson, Roman.

  Essais tax linguistique générale.

• Lacan, Jacques. The Seminars of Jacques Lacan.
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Elementary Structures of Kinship.
• —— 1958. Structural Anthropology [Anthropologie structurale]
• —— 1964–1971. Mythologiques
• Wilcken, Patrick, ed. Claude Levi-Strauss: The Father of Modern Anthropology.