Structuralism
Related: 20th century - deconstruction - meaning - Ferdinand de Saussure - semiotics - sign - post-structuralism - Tsvetan Todorov - structuralist film theory
Fields: genre theory
Titles: The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1970) - Tzvetan Todorov
Definition
Structuralism is a general approach in various academic disciplines that seeks to explore the inter-relationships between some fundamental elements, upon which higher mental, linguistic, social, cultural etc "structures" are built, through which then meaning is produced within a particular person, system, culture.
Structuralism appeared in academic psychology for the first time in 19th century and then reappeared in the second half of the 20th century, when it grew to become one of the most popular approaches in the academic fields that are concerned with analyzing language, culture, and society. Ferdinand de Saussure is generally considered a starting point of the 20th century structuralism. As with any cultural movement, the influences and developments are complex. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism [Oct 2005]
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913)
Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist.
Born in Geneva, he laid the foundation for many developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He perceived linguistics as a branch of a general science of signs he proposed to call semiology (now generally known as semiotics). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure [Oct 2005]
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (born November 28, 1908) is a French anthropologist who became one of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals by developing structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss [Oct 2005]
your Amazon recommendations