The Structural Activity

    Among literary critics perhaps the most prominent and prodigious name to be identified with both structuralism and post structuralism is Roland Barthes.

    “The Structuralist Activity" represents an early phase of Barthes', in which he sets forth- certain structuralist principles. In this essay, his ideas sound like structuralist and in “The Death of the Author", he seems post structuralist.

    Structuralism concerns with meaning but not absolute meaning, rather it is process of obtaining meaning. How we get meaning is more important than what the meaning is. In other words, deep structure is more important than surface structure. It focuses on underlying pattern of meaning. Structuralism believes in linguistic system, condition of meaning and binary opposition. As a structuralist his emphasis is on creative or re- constructive activity endlessly productive of meaning, though meaning itself as a substance is less important than the activity of producing it.

    To be movement and school, there should be a certain norms, inherited system and other theoretical procedures. Since structuralism lacks these features and there is no shared theoretical perspective, it is neither a school nor a movement. It is rather a simulacrum activity. It means, Barthes views that literature is mimesis, creating the same. It is the structure that makes the object visible and intelligible. A structuralist takes the object, decomposes it and finally recomposes it. It implies the view that a structuralist performs two activities to make the text intelligible dissection and articulation. It is the articulation that further involves two related tasks: summoning and combination.

    Dissection means separating each and every part of the text from each other. A structuralist breaks the whole poem in to different parts then he observes these fragmented elements in totality and these elements are again arranged properly, which is called articulation. Therefore, structuralists believe in totality and this very totality is structure. It means the structuralist activity is a bricoleur, which shows double functions. First, they dismantle the original structure without any apriori knowledge and reconstruct it. A critic's activity is productive, creative and even re- constructive, and thus there is the possibility of the production of the meaning. When a critic reconstructs, this new structure is simulacrum (photocopy) of previous structure. The meaning of text is based on surface structure, which is directly concerned with underlying pattern. Dissecting the elements and associating them certainly belongs to totality, which is after all structure. In this way, the goal of all structuralist activity is to reconstruct the object. Therefore, structure is actually a photocopy of the object. In addition, structuralism is in a way, process of reconstruction. Text itself is unintelligible and it is the structuralism that makes the text intelligible. Structuralism critic acts up on the text, so text is object whereas critic is subject. Critic performs certain work up on the text. Each and every parts of a text are always in conflict. They, in this sense, are in motion. Structuralist critics believe that the text is dynamic. They believe in binary opposition through which meaning is produced and each pair of binary opposition produces at least two meanings, which proceeds for the whole meaning of the text.

Saussure    Saussure fundamentally argues that languages are system of signs that are arbitrary and defined by their different relationship. The linguistic sign is composed of signifier and signified. He gives emphasis on the arbitrary nature of signs. He views that language is closed and autonomous system or structure. In his structure each word is a unit and described entirely in terms of its difference from other words.The fundamental unit of language is sign. This sign has two parts- “concept” and “sound image”.The sound image is not the physical sound but the psychological imprint in the mind. Therefore, the linguistic sign is made up of the union of a concept and sound image.For e.g. the concept is dog and there are different words of dog in different language. When we are speakers of a certain language, the sound image for dog in that language will automatically conjure up the concept “dog”. Therefore, the sound dog in English means the thing “dog”. In short, sign is the combination of a signifier and a signified. Sound image is the signifier and concept is the signified. Since there is no natural relationship between signifier and signified language is arbitrary and conventional. For e.g. there are different words in different languages for the same thing like Dog. It is “dog” in English “kukure” in Nepali “kutta” in Hindi and so on, so signifier and signified are based on community agreement.Similarly convention and culture also condition onomatopoeia. Although the roosters of cock are same in every place, but while imitating their sounds, the expression varies from place to place, “kukhuri ka” in Nepali “cock a doddle do” in English and “cocorico” in Spanish.The signifier exists in time, which can be measured in linearity. In written and spoken language, the words cannot be produced at a time. We say one word and next in a linear fashion. Likewise we write one word at a time. So language operates in a linear fashion or sequence and all the elements of a particular fashion form a chain so in a sentence, all the words are connected to each other. Saussure views that thought is a shapeless mass, which is ordered only by language. He means no idea pre- exit language. Language itself gives shape to idea and makes them expressible. It means thought cannot exit without language. In this sense language shape all our reality. Sound in no more fixed than thought, though sounds can be distinguished from each other and hence, associated with ideas. Sounds then serve as signifiers for the ideas, which are the signified. Therefore, language is neither a thing nor a substance but a form, structure and system.Thought and sound are likely the two sides of a coin, which can’t be isolated. They are inseparable. It means we can distinguish between them but cannot separate them. Without language or sign, thought is vague and cannot exit. Ideas do not make any conveyable sense without language. Similarly it is thought that turns the mass of alterable sound in to distinct parts. Read More...