Mel Rose M.

Aguilar
MA Media Studies (Film)
2013- 78431

Prof. Elizabeth L. Enriquez, Phd

Media 210

Short Paper 5
Structuralism Vs. Post Structuralism
Humans, as rational beings have an incessant pursuit in seeking truth and reality in
their world by creating and assigning meanings through structures; the belief that
phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations which
constitute structures and that there are constant laws governed in an abstract culture
( S. Blackburn, 2008. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 2 nd ed.). Such perspective gave
light to the Structuralist mode of reasoning that developed in Europe in the early 1900s.
The very basic tool of humans in meaning- making is language. Language, according
to Ferdinand De Saussure is central to the world we live in... words are collective
products of social interaction and such are essential instruments through which human
beings constitute and articulate their world (Harris, R. 1998. Language, Saussure and
Wittgenstein). Following De Saussures view on language as a cultural system, it (any
cultural system) can be represented as coded systems of meaning rather than direct
transactions with reality. Structuralism in linguistics shed the same light in the fields of
Sociology and Anthropology furthermore, cultural systems must be understood in
terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure that works to
uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive and
feel (S. Blackburn, 2008. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 2 nd ed.). The enterprise of
Structuralism, according to John Fiske (1990), Structuralisms enterprise is to discover
how people make sense of the world, not what the world is. He also argued that the way
we make sense of things are universal because our brains are similarly structured in such
a way.
Following the structuralist approach is the conception of a field of study which
studies the role of signs as part of social life(Semiology) (Saussure 1983, 15-16) which
later dealt more with signs (everything that can be taken as signs) and sign processes as a
significant part of communication; this field of study is called Semiotics.
The movement, dealing with cultural structures became vital in the construction of
narratives and myths. Notable theorists to name are (Retrieved from
http://theoryofnarrativepropp.blogspot.com/2012/01/1-acj-narrative-narrative-is-definedas.html):
Claude Levi- Strauss
Levi Strauss binary opposition is a system of two related categories that, in its purest
form, comprises the universe. Everything is either in category A or category B, and by
imposing such categories upon the world we are starting to make sense of it (Fiske,
1990).

 Tzvetan Todorov
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages (State of
equilibrium, disruption of equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, attempt to repair
disruption, reinstatement of the equilibrium).
Vladimir Propp
He suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of
action' or functions. From a comprehensive study of folktales Propp came up with
seven different character types: hero, villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher, false
hero.
In conclusion, here are three assumptions to be made out in this mode of thinking
(insights
taken
from
a
synthesis
by
C.
Whistnant,
2012.
http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj/his389/differences_struct_poststruct.pdf) :
1. Structuralism per se tend to focus on how systems set limits to what can be thought,
said and meant.
2. This approach is reductive because they are often in search of their own version of
Universal truths; universal structures that bind all humans together at some
level (Chomsky) or some basic structures that all members of a given society (or possibly
multiple societies) have in common (Levi-Strauss).
3. Thought systems are monolithic- the very fact that meanings follow a set of structures,
and so as how these structures function.
In response to the Structuralist movement is the emergence of a school of thought
that rejects the self- sufficiency of structures and the binary oppositions it constitutes
hence, the emergence of Post- Structuralism. Post- Structuralism though retained the
belief of Structuralism that cultural systems can be represented as coded systems of
meaning rather than direct transactions with reality (C. Whistnant, 2012). In fact, a few
notable theorists from the Post- Structuralist camp actually were formerly from the
Structuralist camp (Foucault, Baudrillard, Barthes) and many of whom denied to be
labeled as Post- Structuralist authors.
This school of thought offers a rather alternative approach in studying how
knowledge is produced outside the premise of Structuralism. It argues that history and
culture are subject to biases and misinterpretations because both conditions the study of
the underlying structures, so it is necessary to study both the object (e.g. a text) and the
systems of knowledge responsible for its production. It therefore critiques the rather
descriptive approach of Structuralism in reference to Ferdinand de
Saussure's distinction between the views of historical (diachronic) and descriptive

(synchronic) reading. By studying how cultural concepts have changed over the course of
history, post-structuralists seek to understand how those same concepts are understood by
readers in the present (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism).
Such approach can bee seen in Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization- history is
examined in order to inspect cultural attitudes about madness.
The same light of meaning- making is shed by Postmodernism which is a departure
from Modernism. Deconstruction, a critical approach derived from Jacques Derridas
Grammatology which denies the possibility of a "pure presence": "the present or presence
of sense to a full and primordial intuition". It therefore denies the possibility of
essential or intrinsic and stable meaning and the unmediated access to reality (Evans,
J. Claude, 1991. Strategies of Deconstruction: Derrida and the Myth of
the Voice. 1st ed.)
In summary, here are three assumptions to be made out in the Post Structuralist/ POst
Modernism/ Deconstruction mode of reasoning in contrast to the Structuralist approach
(insights
taken
from
a
synthesis
by
C.
Whistnant,
2012.
http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj/his389/differences_struct_poststruct.pdf) :
1. Poststructuralists generally tend to focus on plurality of meaning
and, indeed, the tendency for meanings to mushroom out of control.
2. Poststructuralists have given up the search for Universal truths.
Poststructuralists tend to focus on which makes us different unlike the
Structuralists who focus on what binds us together.
3. Poststructuralists focus more on the reader/speaker who is operating
within the structure.
Sources:
Clayton J. Whisnant, Difference between Structuralism and Poststructuralism
http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj/his389/differences_struct_poststruct.pdf
Evans, J. Claude, 1991. Strategies of Deconstruction: Derrida and the Myth of the Voice.
1st ed.
http://theoryofnarrativepropp.blogspot.com/2012/01/1-acj-narrative-narrative-is-definedas.html
S. Blackburn, 2008. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed.
https://pdfeitherzklg.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/introduction-to-communicationstudies-fiske-pdf.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism