Structuralism and Post Structuralism

Reading Response (Week 3):

             In this reading, we get to understand clearly, what is structuralism. This has descriptions of Post structuralism from various theorists like Saussure,Barthes, Foucault,and many more.

            Firstly, Saussure divides language into two parts, Signifier and the signified. These combination of them forms the sign. He also mentions that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. The sign together constitutes the meaning. He explains this idea by illustrating it with various examples of traffic lights, dog, etc.
         He points out words like syntagmatic axis which represents the horizontal axis where there are possibilities of combination of words to infer the meaning. Paradigmatic axis, the vertical axis, that represents the functional contrasts. He says "A sign can enter into Paradigmatic relations which can occur in same context but not at same time". The meaning of a sentence is formed by the combination of these paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes. In this discussion he adds that language plays a significant role in shaping what constitutes the reality of material world. He then introduces a new term Myths where the materials in the world are divided into categories.

           Will Wright, one of the theorists disagrees with the point made by Levi Strauss  a french theorist, by saying, "Structuralism is not to reveal a mental structure, but to show how myths of  a society, communicates a conceptual order to its members".  He quotes an example of Hollywood western which is divided into three, the Classic, the transition and the professional. The movie Dances with wolves, represents the transition theme as this anticipates the new social values in the system.

           Ronald Barthes argues that there are two levels of signification. The Primary and the Secondary level. Where the Primary level of signification denotes the natural meaning and Secondary level is he level where connotative meaning comes into existence. He illustrates this with an example from Paris magazine, with a picture of "a black soldier saluting French flag".

            Post Structuralism as described in the book rejects the idea of underlying structure upon which the meanings can rest secure and guaranteed. It says that this process is more complex than explained.

            Finally this reading concludes with the description of discourse by Michel Foucault. He says that discourse works in three ways, to enable, to constrain and to constitute. He also explains how knowledge and power imply each other. The interesting part was about the Panopticon, which can be described by these lines, "the whole social body into a field of perception". He illustrates how modern TV shows like Big Brother and some magazines like Reveal,Closer,Heat work with this phenomenon and are considered as a part of entertainment.