Structuralism

It is the name that is given to a wide range

of discourses that study underlying

structures of signification.

History Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, existentialism, such as that propounded by Jean-Paul Sartre, was the dominant European intellectual movement. Structuralism rose to prominence in France in the wake of existentialism, particularly in the 1960s. The initial popularity of structuralism in France led to its spread across the globe.

Where does the structuralism

come?Structuralism first comes to

prominence as a specific discourse with the work of a Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, who developed a branch of linguistics called

"Structural Linguistics." Saussure died before he was able to

publish his material but we have the meticulously recorded notes of several of his students made during the 2nd course of 1908-

1909.

Features O All texts, all meaningful

events and all signifying practices can be analyzed for their underlying structures. Such an analysis would reveal the patterns that characterize the system that makes such texts and practices possible.

O Structuralism promises to offer insights into what makes us the way we are.

Example

An example is describing an apple:

An apple is crisp, sweet, juicy, round, and hard.

Leading figures

Claude Lévi-Strauss: (1908 to 2009) “Father of Structuralism;” born in Brussels in 1908. He became a professor of sociology in Brazil in 1934. It was at this time that he began to think about human thought cross-culturally and alterity. Lévi-Strauss has been noted as singly associated for the elaboration of the structuralist paradigm in anthropology (Winthrop 1991).

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 to 1913) was a Swiss linguist and semiotician whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments both in linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major fathers (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics/semiology.

Roman Jakobson

Roman Jakobson (1896 to 1982) a Russian structural linguist.  Was influenced by the work of Ferdinand de Saussere and worked with Nikolai Trubetzkoy to develop techniques for the analysis of sound in language.   His work influenced Lévi-Strauss while they were colleagues at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Marcel Mauss

Marcel Mauss (1872 to 1952) French sociologist.  His uncle was Emile Durkheim.  He taught Lévi-Strauss and influenced his thought on the nature of reciprocity and structural relationships in culture (Winthrop 1991).

Jacques Derrida

Michel Foucault

Jacques Derrida (1930 to 2004) French social philosopher and literary critic who may be labeled both a “structuralist’ and a “poststructuralist” and was the founder of deconstructionism. 

Michel Foucault(1926 to 1984)

French social philosopher

whose works have been

associated with both structuralist

and poststructuralist

thought, more often with the

latter.

Conclusion O Structuralism is only

interested in understanding the basic definitions of something, not the more complex ideas and reasons behind it.

O Structuralism is important because it is the first major school of thought in psychology.