Post-structuralism

In this essay I will explore structuralism and evaluate the usefulness of the theory. I will look at examples of Structuralism in ethnography, such as observable binary oppositions and interpretations of the importance of myth, also exploring criticisms of the theory. I will explore the claim that Structuralism is too theory-based and cannot account for the experience of the individual, and whether this means that Structuralism can be relied on to inform us about human life from an…

Saussure Within The Great Gatsby Structuralism can be described as a critical movement of literature that studies how elements of a text can be understood more efficiently by examining its relationship to the overall composition of a text. Ferdinand de Saussure, the “father of modern linguistics” (845) is a prominent critic in the Structuralism movement. The understanding of Saussure’s theory in Structuralism will be examined using mathematical examples and applied to interpret The Great Gatsby…

Structuralism Essay The Flowers by Alice Walker uses several structuralist concepts that can help the reader better understand the story. There are three different structuralist terms emphasized while reading the story: sign, code, and symbol. A sign, in a literary sense, is a thing that makes you think of something else without an obvious connection between the sign and object. Codes are a set of ideas, rules, letters, numbers, symbols, etc., that are used to represent another thing. A…

Jacques Lacan’s theory of development explains how infants mature psychologically. The stages of his concept include the Imaginary, the Mirror, and the Symbolic. The first is where children begin to understand control. Babies learn to manipulate their environment as an extension of their own base needs and desires. There is no separation between the baby and the outside world. Following the discovery of control, infants undergo the Mirror stage, where they learn to recognize their own image…

In The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events, E.E. Evans-Pritchard discusses one case study about the time he spent with the Azande tribe and what he learned about them and their interpretations of magic and witchcraft. Evans-Pritchard describes that the Zande have a philosophy that can easily be described by the following metaphor: witchcraft is the umbaga (or second spear) meaning that the Azande people use witchcraft to complement their understanding of reality (The Notion of…

It is clear that while the reign of structuralism in literary theory may be far from over, it’s observations on narrative arcs (particularly surrounding death) may find redemption in utility to explain the psychological effects of life in a society that repudiates an individual’s very…

The article I chose to critique is titled, “Promoting Social and Cultural Competence for Students from Diverse Backgrounds with Disabilities”, written by Beatrice Adera and Maria L. Manning (2014) and published in the journal of Multicultural Learning and Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp 67-82. Summary of the Article “Promoting Social and Cultural Competence for Students from Diverse Backgrounds with Disabilities” (Adera and Manning, 2014) examines social interaction, social competence, and cultural…

The movie Sleepy Hollow is a movie where a Proppian analysis can be applied, but because the story line is unique it doesn't follow all of the steps included in this analysis. The preparatory part starts with the initial situation, which was that Crane was facing imprisonment for using new age forensic methods while investigating, so instead of sentencing him to prison the judge decided to send him to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of beheadings. The next step this story follows is the…

In Roland Barthes “Toys” and Maria Edgeworth’s “Toys” they both talk about how toys have affected the culture for the good and the bad. Toys have had a big impact on the way children grow up; it has changed the culture since younger generations are becoming adults. While I was growing up as a child one of my favorite toys was the Gameboy. It had many different games that you could play. The Gameboy was a massive technologic advance that the children of my generation got to play with. I think it…

He divides the history of literary criticism between pre-1960 and post-1960, arguing that anything pre-1960 was more widely accepted than the post-1960 theories that were met with resistance. After listing several prominent pre-1960 theorists, de Man states, “none of…