Structuralism and Formalism – UGC NET English – Notes

Introduction

• Structuralism is a major school of literary criticism and theory that emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to New Criticism. While New Criticism emphasized close reading of individual texts, Structuralism sought to understand literature through underlying structures and broader systems of meaning. Both Structuralism and Post-Structuralism originated in France, but their influence extended across multiple literary traditions worldwide.
• Structuralism attempts to interpret literature through systematic structures, especially those derived from linguistics. Key thinkers who contributed significantly to Structuralism include Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Derrida. Among them, Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida played important roles in applying structuralist principles directly to literary analysis.
• Formalism is another important school of literary theory. Like Structuralism, it marked a shift away from biographical, historical, and cultural influences in interpretation. Instead, Formalism emphasizes form, focusing on the inherent features of a text, such as syntax, literary devices, and structure, to derive meaning. Thus, Formalism involves the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of a literary work based solely on its intrinsic characteristics rather than external contexts.
• Formalism began as Russian Formalism and later spread to the United States, where figures such as René Wellek and Austin Warren helped popularize it. Formalism is generally divided into Russian Formalism and New Criticism. The chief proponent of Russian Formalism was Roman Jakobson, who significantly influenced later structuralist thought.

Structuralism

Principles of Structuralism

• Emphasis on structures: Structuralism lays emphasis on structures and systems by which our experiences, society, culture, and even language are shaped and influenced. It aims to study how each of the separate structures interact and lead to the whole.
• Interconnectedness of the structures: Structuralists believe that different structures are not independent of one another. They are interconnected and interlinked. A study of these different components or structures helps understand the relationship between them, leading to an understanding of the system under which these structures function.
• Signs are integral: For structuralists, language is a system of signs. They study the function of these signs to understand the relationship between the signifier and the signified. So for them, language is not merely communication but a system that facilitates an understanding of the world.
• Binary opposition: Binary opposition refers to the presence of contrasting concepts, such as hot–cold; love–hate; rural–urban; male–female, etc. By focusing on the differences, binary opposition helps in creating meaning. The understanding happens through the contrasts within or among the structures.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

• Ferdinand de Saussure is generally called the father of Structuralism. He was a Swiss linguist. He is famous for his work Course in General Linguistics. It is a compilation of his lectures and was published posthumously in 1916. The Saussurian theory gave way to the structural theory of understanding man’s social and cultural life as depicted in literature.
• Saussure referred to language as a system of signs. It is through these signs that meaning is derived. Signs consist of the signifier and the signified. The signifier could be a word (spoken or written), and the signified is the underlying meaning evoked by the signifier. He also distinguished between langue and parole. Let us look at each one of these now.

Theory of Signs:

1. Sign: It is a unit of language. It has two components: the signifier and the signified.

2. Signifier: It is the written or the spoken word that represents the sign. Take, for instance, the page which you are reading now. “Page” is the sign; the written word spelled p-a-g-e or the spoken word /peɪdʒ/ is the signifier.

3. Signified: It is the idea or the concept of the sign. So, the idea of “page” that is evoked in our mind is the signified.

Langue and Parole:

• Langue: It refers to the abstract rules of a language as shared by a linguistic group. It is the social part of a language governed by rules and norms. It is the linguistic code which consists of the structures. It does not concern itself with usage. It is a study of the rules. It is superior to parole.
• Parole: It refers to the actual use of language through speech and writing. It is the personal and individual expression of language. It is the use of the langue for a specific purpose with a specific meaning. It does not concern itself with the rules, but with usage. It is inferior to langue.

Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009)

• Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist. He was influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure. As an anthropologist, he found similarities between Saussure’s linguistic system of sign, signifier, and signified and the cultural systems studied in anthropology.
• He rejected the view of existentialism that gave importance to individual freedom and choice. Instead, he believed that unconscious patterns and structures give shape to human behaviour. His theory of Structuralism, thus, aimed to present the structures that influence human thought across cultures and time periods. He presented a theoretical framework to help understand how our beliefs and values are shaped by these structures.
• He proposed that every culture engages in bricolage. Bricolage means the recombination of present cultural elements into a newer form. Ideas and practices from different cultures are taken and recombined into a newer idea or practice. This leads to cultural shift and innovative practices in society.