Structuralism was developed by Ferdinand de Saussure in the mid-twentieth century (Cuddon and Preston 923). This creation was brought on, in part, by the French existentialism period and is often combined with the semiotic theory of literary criticism; both are the source of development for other literary criticisms from the formalist schools of thought. As the name suggests, structuralism examines the structure of the work, investigating the ramifications of the organizations of literatures (McManus, 1998). As an image to portray this idea is examining the structure of a building and comparing it to the structures of other buildings in its surroundings, and then subsequently comparing the common features of those buildings to buildings from other cultures and what those architectural discrepancies represent (Brizee and Tompkins, 2011).
Structuralism employs terms to help in the understanding of one of the most complex literary theories (McManus, 1998; Brizee and Tompkins, 2011). All words in any given language are either classified as parole or langue (McManus, 1998). Barbara McManus is an expert on literary criticism, has authored two books on the subject, is a retired professor of Classics Emerita, including the topics of Feminism and general literary criticism courses, from College of New Rochelle who defines the two terms as “any particular meaningful use of spoken or written language (also called ‘performance’)” and “the underlying system of sounds, forms, and rules of combination of a language which make meaningful communication possible (a speaker's implicit knowledge of this system is called ‘competence’),” respectively (McManus, 2003; McManus, 1998). McManus later states that “[Structuralists are] interested in langu...
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...ll D. Moyers. The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday, 1988. Print.
"Cormac McCarthy on James Joyce and Punctuation." Interview by Oprah Winfrey.Oprah.com. OPRAH, 01 June 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. .
Cuddon, J. A., and Claire Preston. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1999. Print.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
McManus, Barbara F. "Barbara McManus Home Page." CNR.com. College of New Rochelle, July 2003. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.
McManus, Barbara F. "Structuralist Approaches." Structuralist Approaches. The College of New Rochelle, Oct. 1998. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. "VirtuaLit: Critical Approaches." VirtuaLit: Critical Approaches. Bedford/St. Martin's, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
Author: Walter Benn Michaels is the chair of the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago teaching literary theory, and American literature. Michaels has also has multiple essays and books published such as Against Theory, The shape of the Signifier, and Diversity's False Solace
Among its detractors, literary theory has a reputation for sinful ignorance of both literature and the outside world; literary critics either overemphasize the word at the expense of context (as in formalistic criticisms) or overemphasize context at the expense of the word (as in political and historical criticisms). However, deconstruction holds a particularly tenuous position among literary theories as a school that apparently commits both sins; while formalistically focusing on the words on the page, deconstruction subjects those words to unnatural abuse. Thus, deconstruction seems locked in the ivory tower, in the company of resentful New-Critical neighbors.
Sam Ridgway in The Representation of Construction emphasizes the role of representation in architecture stating, “The world of architecture is a world of representation” (268). He continues writing, “Architects do not build buildings; they represent them, mainly through drawings, models, words and numbers. In turn, buildings are also interpretations or representation of these mediating instruments and artifacts that precede their construction” (268). It is through realizing that representational tools are “value laden” that contemporary architects may move forward from the “ideological stagnation plaguing most architectural creation” (269). Comparing the preceding eras to the contemporary era, “there is an inverse relationship
The book, Towards A New Architecture by Le Corbusier is not at all what one would expect. Thinking that the great master architect would limit himself t...
the Concept of Structure, as “the way things look to us, or the way they sound, feel, taste,
The first segment of this essay aims to define the main views of structuralism, one of these theoretical approaches. Structuralism, in particular the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, created controversy as it directly challenged some of the values of the everyday reader in the way it attempts to disregard the actual content of writings, and instead concentrates on form and diagrammatics. As the name suggests structuralism is concerned with the interrelationships between structures and the general laws by which they work.
The author argues that she is not a “scholar of English or a literature” but instead a writer. She notes that she has always been interested by language in daily life, spending
Smithson, Isaiah. “Structuralism as a Method of Literary Criticism.” College English. Vol. 37, No. 2. National Council of Teacher of English. 1975. 145-59. Web.
Staton, Shirley F. Literary Theories In Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Peter Barry attempts to define structuralism succinctly by narrowing it down as “the belief that things cannot be understood in isolation—they have to be seen in the context of the larger structures they are part of”; he goes on to add that “meaning is always an attribute of things, in the literal sense that meanings are ATTRIBUTED to the things by the human mind, not contained within them” (39). One might attempt to further narrow this idea (ironically) by quoting the famous line, “Everything is relative,” which is to say, all reality is contingent upon the perceiver. The context in which that reality is being perceived becomes the point of interest, so that, in regard to literature, “there is a constant movement away from the interpretation of the individual literary work and a parallel drive towards understanding the larger, abstract structures which contain them” (Barry, 40). The question becomes not what, but how.
Klages, M. (2006). Literary Theory: A guide for the perplexed . London: Continum International Publishing Group.
Buildings reflect the values and ideas of society within periods. The role of architecture in shaping society and vice versa largely depends on the period in question and who or what affects first. The Enlightenment, and the subsequent period the Post-Enlightenment, reflect the biggest change for current ideas regarding architecture and society and current theories. At the same time, individual identities and understanding of society, progress and truth all follow a similar evolving path. It is during this dramatic shift in thinking that the role of architecture to society and the idea of progress and truth becomes a more complex relationship. How this relationship works and its implications is based on the theory that there is a direct link between the two. One cannot develop without the other. Who leads whom and to what extent they influence each other is evident in architectural trends and pioneering works by architects such as Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry amongst others.
Jencks briefly explains post-modern aesthetics from their modernist predecessors’ and pinpoints the instant of modernism’s death, writing “Happily, we can date the death of Modern Architecture to a precise moment in time… Modern Architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 15, 1972 at 3:32 p.m. (or thereabouts)...” (23). Unlike Jencks, literary scholars talk about the first, most original or famous representatives of modernism, but they completely avoid pinpointing an ultimate end to the movement. Due to architecture’s visual character and Jencks’ early, authoritative, and internationally read scholarship, the differences between modern and post-modern aesthetics are often clearer in architecture than in literature. Architecture provides a helpful visual counterpoint for modern and post-modern aesthetics in literature. According to him, architectural post-modernism favours pluralism, complexity, double coding, and historical contextualism.
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.
Raman Selden, Peter Widdowson, and Peter Brooker. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall and Harvester Wheatrsheaf. 1997.