DE LA SALLE-COLLEGE OF SAINT BENILDE

School of Multidisciplinary Studies

English Area

Literary Theories and Criticism in Philippine Literature

Course: PHILITS: Philippine Literature

Topic: Formalism, Structuralism
Discussant:
Chester Derequito

Part One: TRACING STRUCTURALISM’S ROOT: A REVISIT OF THE PAST

Focus Question: What is structuralism’s history from the perspectives of the two
general critics of literature?

Two General
Critics of
Literature

Old Criticism New Criticism

(Medieval- (Modernism-
Renaissance) Postmodernism)

Concentrates on Concentrates on
the author’s the work or text
background itself

Traditional
Criticism Formalism (1945-1965)

Structuralism (1965-1980)

Poststructuralism (1980-?)

Cultural Studies (Late 90’s-?)

Part Two: STRUCTURALISM IN FOCUS: ITS DEFINITION, CONTEXT,

1
 AND KEY ASSUMPTIONS

Focus Question:
How is structuralism distinguished from other literary approaches or critical
paradigms in literature?

Distinctions
Structuralis
 emerged from structural linguistics developed
m
by Ferdinand de Saussure
 identifies textual features (grammatical rather
than rhetorical)
 tries to uncover the grammar-syntax or
phonemic pattern of particular human
systems of meaning
 denies any claim of privilege for any author,
any school, any period, and any correct
explication
 is, at least, seemingly, scientific and objective
 is static, ahistorical, and antihumanist
 cannot interpret any literary work (can only
show how to identify a work’s characteristic
features, and how to perceive their likeness to
or differences from structures in other works)

Key Principles/Assumptions
 The author is dead, and that literary discourse
has no truth function.
 Literature has a special relationship with
language, and it draws attention to the very
nature and properties of language.
 The structure of a language produces a reality.
 In the beginning was the word, and the word
created the text. (pre-existence of language)
 Structuralist reading is essentially the quest
for the code.

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 Part Three: FROM LITERARY THEORY TO LITERARY CRITICISM:
STRUCTURALISM IN PRACTICE!
Focus Question:
How is structural approach applied in literature?
Key Figures
1. Ferdinand de Saussure
2. Charles Sanders Pierce
3. Claude Levi Strauss
Key Terms
a. Langue Vs. Parole
- The former is language, the system
possessed and used by all members of a
particular language community. The
latter, alternatively, is word. By
extension, it is as speech event or any
specific application of langue in speech or
writing.
b. Sign vs. Symbol
SIGN= Signifier
Signified
- Words are not symbols; they are signs.
- The signifier is a mark either written or
spoken.
- The signified is a concept-what is
thought of when the mark is made.
- The relation between signifier and
signified is arbitrary.
- Sign System of Traffic Lights
red-amber-green
Signifier: Red
Signified: Stop
c. Syntagmatic Approach
- analyzing the text word by word in
horizontal sequence of the parts or
syntagms of the sentence (reading of
text from start to finish or from
beginning to end)
a. Iconic Symbols Vs. Identical/Indexical
Symbols Vs. Symbolic/True Symbols
- Iconic: The signifier resembles the
thing signified. (Ex: stick figures on
washroom doors= men and women)
- Identical/Indexical: The signifier is a
reliable indicator of the thing signified.
(Ex: smoke=fire)
- Symbolic/True: The signifier’s relation
to the thing signified is completely
arbitrary and conventional.
(ex: language)
a. Binary Opposition/Juxtaposition
3
 - is a pair of theoretical opposites where
one of which assumes a role of
dominance over the other; the result of
which is a tension that is paradoxical or a
synthesis or a positive resolution.
Ex:
Rich Poor

Discrimination

b. Mythemes
- units of myth that are organized in
binary oppositions; may be analyzed
chronologically or relationally
Ex: In Oedipus Rex
Overevaluation of kinship (Oedipus
marries his mother ; Antigone buries her
brother unlawfully) Vs. Underevaluation
of kinship (Oedipus kills his father;
Eteocles kills his father)

4. Vladimir, Propp and Todorov a.Structuralist Narratology or Narrative

Theory
- To ascertain a text’s meaning,
narratologists emphasize grammatical
elements such as verb tenses and the
relationships and configurations of
figures of speech within the story.
- Syntax (the rules of sentence
construction) is the basic model of
narrative rules.
Ex: The knight (subject) slew the dragon
with his sword (predicate). If we
substitute a name ‘Lancelot’ or ‘Gawain’
for the ‘knight’ or ‘axe’ for ‘sword’. We
retain the same essential structure.

5. Jonathan Culler a. Structuralist Poetics

- The real object of poetics is not the
work itself but its intelligibility.
- Main endeavor: shift the focus from the
text to the reader

6. Other Important Terminologies a. Semiology/Semiotics

- science of signs
b. Extended Metaphor
- is to have referential or emotive
characteristics of the truth