Structuralism and Literary Criticism

What is structuralism? 

 It is a approach to analysing the narrative Material by examining the underlying invariant structure. This is in fact exactly what structuralism is about structuralist theorist are interested in identifying and analysing the structure that underlie all the cultural phenomenon. 

There are many Structuralist critics like Ferdinand Saussure, Gerard Genette , Roland Barthes, Claude Levi-Strauss etc. Structuralist critics found basic common structure in every work. As all the human beings  have a same structure from inside, similarly literature has basic structure and it is same everywhere whether it movies, TV serials or advertisement etc.

 We find basic common structure in every work. And literary work has also common structure like… Starting , Climax and End.. To understand structuralism , we must understand the three word Sign, Signifier, and Signified.

Sign – Sound, word
signifier– through sign meaning comes & image pop up in mind
Signified – Something already there. Signifier stands for.

  So, we find thee fundamental assumptions  are:

1. Arbitrary
2. Relational
3. Convectional

What is Narratology ? 

In order to understand narratology’s contribution to semiotics, it is important to grasp the distinction between its three fundamental entities: story, narrative, and narration.

Important concepts in Genette's narratology.

Below are the five main concepts used by Genette in Narratology.

Order

Frequency

Duration

Voice

Mood

Here as per instruction rather than writing about structuralism I would  try to analyze like structuralist critic.

For example every literary text has a Beginning, Middle ( Climax) and End.

Movie like P.K. RANGRASIA, OH MY GOD  has a same structure- anti religion or challenges this ideas. If we take structuralist approach then OMG IS better than PK. Structure of both is same.

For example T.V. serial  CID  helps us to understand NARRATOLOGY.  Structure is same for example murder occurs, detection and murderer found by detective. This structure is same in every episode since 17 years. But they make changes in presenting it.

Most of hindi movies  or literature are same. For example  boy+ girl love each other but family is against it or vice versa family ready to marriage but children do not like each other.

We also find binary opposition every where. Good-evil, male-female, god- Satan, white-black.

This and other many common things are found everywhere. This are the few examples .

Significance of ' FIRE ' and ' ICE ' in the both poems : 1) Fire and Ice by Robert Frost and 2) Ice and Fire by Edmund Spenser.

1. Ice and Fire by Edmund Spenser 

2.Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

In this both of poem their are common thing told which is Fire and Ice and we can see this thing as many ways like fire is a symbol of passion, fire, Desire, expectation and Ice is a symbol of careless.thus Both the poems have different meaning and represents the symbol and sign. One poem shows us the capacity of disaster and second was the different one which shows the possibilities between fire and ice. Poem represents the desire and hate. We can also see the paradox between the fire and ice, and the for destruction both are the sufficient.