Structuralism, a methodology that originated in19th century, was developed by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857? 19 13) was founded after Wittgenstein and Jean? Piaget, Lacan, Claude? Levi Strauss, Roland? The development and criticism of Barthes, Althusser, Kohlberg, Chomsky, Foucault and Derrida has become an important ideological trend in the contemporary world.
In the second half of the 20th century and the 21st century, it has become one of the most commonly used research methods to analyze language, culture and society. Structuralism can be regarded as a generalized research method with many different changes. Broadly speaking, structuralism tries to explore how a cultural meaning is expressed through what kind of relationship (that is, structure). According to the structuralist theory, the generation and re-creation of cultural meaning is a deep structure to discover how meaning is generated and re-generated in culture through various practices, phenomena and activities as a meaning system. A structuralist's research object will be as different as food preparation and dining etiquette, religious ceremonies, games, literary and non-literary texts and other forms of entertainment.
The concept of structuralism
For ordinary people, structuralism is a school initiated by the French anthropologist Levi-Strauss in cultural anthropology, which regards various cultures as.
It is a system and can be analyzed according to the structural relationship between its components. According to his theory, the universal pattern in the cultural system is the product of the constant structure in human thought. In the system proposed by Levi-Strauss, human mind is regarded as a repository of various natural substances, from which paired components can be selected to form various structures. These two opposing components can be separated into a single component, and these single components can form a new opposing component. When Levi-Strauss analyzed the name and system of relatives, he proposed that there are four basic types of kinship structures or units: brother-sister relationship, husband-wife relationship, father-son relationship and uncle-nephew relationship, on which all other kinship systems are based. Levi-Strauss emphasized that the analysis of kinship structure must focus on people's consciousness, not objective kinship or blood relationship. Levi-Strauss believes that all forms of social life are embodied in the role of universal laws, which can control thinking activities.
Structuralism seems to be a distant thing. Even some professional literary workers, if they are not exposed to western theories, are likely to say disapprovingly: What is structuralism? What's the big deal? In fact, structuralism, as a way of thinking, has already penetrated into all aspects of our lives, and it is a generalized revolution in the way of thinking. After the birth of structuralism, it changed the way people look at and think about problems like a sword, and penetrated into every corner of social and political life: as a cultural trend of thought, it involves various categories of social sciences, such as linguistics, anthropology, psychology and so on. As a literary trend of thought, structuralism has influenced almost all fields of literature and art, from theory to creation, from novel, drama, poetry to film. This trend of thought has also produced a wide range of international influences. Since the mid-1960s, it has spread rapidly to Britain, the United States, West Germany, Italy and Denmark, and has had an impact on the Eastern Group countries such as the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. It is the third trend of thought in contemporary western literary theory after the post-war period, following Britain, America, New Criticism and French Phenomenology School. Some people think that since the 1960s, structuralists? Was replaced? An existentialist? .
The formation of structuralism
No ideological trend can be formed overnight and become famous in the world, and structuralism is no exception. Although the golden age of structuralism was in the 1960s, it was not formed in the 1960s, nor was it born in France. Its history can be traced back to the early 20th century. At that time, some western scholars were too meticulous about the division of labor in modern culture, seeking only the part, not the whole? Atomic theory? Tending to be dissatisfied, they are eager to restore the humanistic tradition of paying attention to comprehensive research that has been interrupted since the Renaissance, so they put forward? System theory? And then what? Structural theory? Thought emphasizes the study of their structure and regularity from a large system (such as various cultural branches or literary schools). One of the most representative is the Austrian philosopher Ludwig? Wittgenstein's view expressed in On Logical Philosophy (1922): The world is made up of many? Status? The whole, every one? Status? Is a chain of many things, they are in a certain relationship, and this relationship is like this? Status? Structure, this is our research object. This is an original structuralism thought, which was first applied to linguistic research.
Born in Ferdinand, Switzerland? De? Saussure was the first person to apply structuralism to linguistic research. In the long-term linguistic research, he gradually formed a series of new viewpoints that are contrary to the comparative linguistic viewpoints that dominated the linguistic research in the 9th century. Comparative linguistics regards some linguistic facts as isolated and static units, and only pays attention to their historical comparison, ignoring the mutual restriction and interdependence between linguistic elements; Ignoring that language is a whole system. Saussure put the specific language behavior (? Words? ) and the deep system that people master when learning a language (? Language? ) and regard language as a symbol system. What produces meaning is not the symbol itself, but the combination of symbols. Linguistics is the study of the law of symbol combination. Although Saussure used the word? System? Instead of. Structure? , but the meaning is the same. He regards the characteristics of language as the relationship network between meaning and sound, which is the pure structure of the relationship, and takes this relationship as the object of linguistic research, which is the main theoretical principle of structuralist linguistics. Saussure's theory was sorted out by his students after his death and published under the title of General Linguistics, which had a far-reaching influence on structuralism. So Saussure is revered by people? Father of structuralism? .
1945 French Claude? Levi? Strauss published Structural Analysis and Linguistic Anthropology, which is the first time to apply the research results of structural linguistics to anthropology. He regards social and cultural phenomena as a deep structural system and individual customs and stories as? Language? The elements of. His study of primitive logic, totem system and myth is to establish a kind of? Specific logic? . He does not rely on social function to explain individual customs or stories, but regards them as a kind of? Language? Element, as a conceptual system, because people organize the world through this system. His subsequent series of research results caused other disciplines to attach great importance to structuralism, so in the 1960s, many important disciplines were related to structuralism. An era of structuralism in full swing has arrived.
Why did structuralism prevail and flourish in France in 1960s? Probably because I like Terry? Eagleton said? Structuralism is best seen as a manifestation of and a response to the social and linguistic crisis I have outlined. It escaped from history to language-which is ironic, because as Barthes saw, there is no action in history that is more meaningful than this. ? After the war, France, like other old capitalist countries that once extended their territory to other lands abroad, was no longer free for French scholars to go in and out of the third world countries that were once its colonies for field trips because of the independence of the third world countries. The research method that emphasizes on-the-spot investigation and ignores theoretical analysis is no longer suitable for them, and the emergence of structuralism just caters to their needs. This is probably also a master of structuralism. Do they all look alike? Some out-of-touch university professors? Reason. In addition, the French economy recovered and developed rapidly after the war. He is my hell? Existentialism is incompatible with reality for the purpose, and man is right? Personal? 、? Existence? 、? Self-awareness and so on, these existential concepts have lost their earlier enthusiasm and interest, and structuralism has risen as an existential negative trend of thought under this background. Structuralism thinks: me? The subject is neither the center of itself nor the center of the world. Such a center does not exist.
As a result, in the low tide of existentialism, structuralism, as a rising star, appeared intensively.
Structuralism methodology
Structuralism is not a simple philosophical theory in the traditional sense, but a research method used by some humanities and social scientists in their respective professional fields. Its purpose is to try to make humanities and social sciences reach the same accurate and scientific level as natural sciences.
Structuralism method has two basic characteristics.
The first is the emphasis on wholeness. Structuralism holds that the whole has the importance of logical priority to the part. Because everything is a complex and unified whole, the nature of any component can not be understood in isolation, but only in a whole relationship network, that is, to connect it with other parts. As Hawkes said: In any case, the essence of a factor itself is meaningless, and its meaning is actually determined by its relationship with other factors in a given situation. ? Thirdly, as Saussure thinks, language is a system, all its elements are interrelated, and the value of each element can only be the result of the coexistence of other elements. ? Therefore, the study of linguistics should proceed from a holistic and systematic perspective, and should not be divorced from the specific symbol system to study isolated words. Levi? Strauss also believes that social life is a meaningful and complex whole composed of economic, technical, political, legal, ethical, religious and other factors, and one aspect of it cannot be understood unless it is considered in combination with other aspects. Therefore, structuralism insists that only through the relationship between parts can the whole and parts be properly explained. The essence and first principle of structuralism method is that it tries to study the complex network of connecting and combining elements, rather than the whole elements.