It is the offshoot of certain developments in linguistics and anthropology. Saussure’s mode of the synchronic study of language was an attempt to formulate the grammar of a language from a study of parole. Using the Saussurian linguistic model, Claude Levi-Strauss examined the customs and conventions of some cultures with a view of arriving at the grammar of those cultures. In literary theory, structuralism is an approach to analysing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure.
Genette empathetically defines Structuralism as a method is based on the study of structures wherever they occur. Genette believes that structural criticism is untainted by any of the transcendent reductions of psychoanalysis or Marxist explanation.
There are two types of methodology used by critics for study of language.
1] Diachronic
2] Synchronic
Diachrony and Synchrony are two different and complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A synchronic approach considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a language at a specific point of time, usually the present. By contrast, a diachronic approach considers the development and evolution of a language through history. Historical linguistics is typically a diachronic study.
Saussure focuses on what he calls language.
1] LANGUGE = LANGUE + PAROLE
‘A system of signs that expresses ideas’ describes the way in which the general phenomenon of language is made up of two factors— ‘Parole’is the individual acts of speech and putting into practice of languages and ‘Langue’— is a
system of differences between signs. It refers to the abstract system of language that is internalised by a given speech community.
In very simple words Languge means - The entire human potential for speech, Langue means - The system that each of us uses to generate discourse which is intelligible to others ,and all individual utterances fall under the category of Parole.
According to Claude Levi Strauss - Parole means individual tale and Langue is cycle of Myth, if langue is unintelligible then parole can't be understood.
2] SIGN= SIGNIFIER + SIGNIFIED
Eg: Cow- Sign, 4 lagged animal- Signifire , Religious belief as a "GAY MATA"- Signified.
Now the question is ...
What do Struturalist critics do?
1. They analyse (mainly) prose narratives, relating the text to some larger containing structure, such as:
(a) the conventions of a particular literary genre, or
(b) a network of intertextual connections, or
(c) a projected model of an underlying universal narrative structure, or
(d) a notion of narrative as a complex of recurrent patterns or motifs.
2. They interpret literature in terms of a range of underlying parallels with the structures of language, as described by modern linguistics. For instance, the notion of the 'mytheme', posited by Levi-Strauss, denoting the minimal units of narrative 'sense', is formed on the analogy of the morpheme, which, in linguistics, is the smallest unit of grammatical sense. An example of a morpheme is the 'ed' added to a verb to denote the past tense.
3. They apply the concept of systematic patterning and structuring to the whole field of Western culture, and across cultures, treating as 'systems of signs' anything from Ancient Greek myths to brands of soap powder.
Here are 6 main concepts used by Genette in Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. They are primarily used to look at the syntax of narratives, rather than to perform an interpretation of them.
1] ORDER
2] FREQUENCY
3] DURATION
4] VOICE
5] MOOD
6] FOCALIZATION
After getting basic idea of structuralism and Genette's concept of Narratology, I'm going to describe movie "Rustom" by spects of Structuralism.
6 Concepts :
1] Order :
{Say a story is as follows: a murder occurs (event A); then the circumstances of the murder are revealed to a detective (event B), finally the murderer is caught (event C).
Arranged chronologically the events run A1, B2, C3. Arranged in the text they may run B1 (discovery), A2 (flashback), C3 (resolution).
This accounts for the 'obvious' effects the reader will recognise, such as flashback. It also deals with the structure of narratives on a more systematic basis, accounting for flash-forward, simultaneity, as well as possible, if rarely used effects. These disarrangements on the level of order are termed 'anachrony'.}
In movie Rustom if we supposed that A = Real truth behind murder , B= Court room drama, C= Villain identification , D= Circumstances of murder revealed , E=Murder,F= Love affair ; then chronologically events run in below order.
F⇒ E⇒ B ⇒C⇒ D⇒ A
2] Frequency :
The separation between event and narration allows many possibility all four are :
1- Singular : An event can occur once and narrated once ,
In Rustom - Court has given their judgement once and in movie it was mentioned only one time.
2- Iterative: An event can occur n times and be narrated once,
In movie Rustom- Cynthia and Vikram wrote many latter to each-other but narrated only once.
3- Repetitive: An event can occur one time and be narrated n times,
In movie - Murder of Vikram occurred only once but narrated many times during court room drama.
4- Multiple: An event can occur n times and be narrated n times,
In Rustom- The case was run during many days and also narrated the same.
3] Duration :
{The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative time.}
In movie Rustom - When Rustom [protagonist] went to his job ,he passed more then a year on Ship,it was very lengthy period of time but event was narrated in a short narrative time of only 5 minutes. Same thing happens during case , it runs days and days but when it was narrated in movie scene of court room take few hours only.
4] Voice:
{Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where. This can be split four ways.
In movie Rustom how narration changed and from which perspective let's see-
- Intra-diegetic: inside the text.
- In movie Akshay kumar was playing role of Protagonist whose name was Rustom and narrator narrated story from different perspectives ,one perspective was taken by protagonist of movie also.
⇛Is the narrator a character in the story?
- Homo-diegetic: the narrator is a character in the story.
- As per above mentioned that Protagonist also narrated some part of story thus we can say that the term Homo-diegetic was used there.
5] Mood:
{Genette said narrative mood is dependent on the 'distance' and 'perspective' of the narrator, and like music, narrative mood has predominant patterns. It is related to voice.
Distance of the narrator changes with narrated speech, transposed speech and reported speech .}
At some extent mood is related to voice and narration, means ,if narration's perspective was first person singular then Distance has to be so close but maybe Perspective will be prejudice.
In Rustom as we see that some narration has been done by protagonist itself thus we supposed that he was very closer at level of Distance but at last we can see that his Perspective was effected by his prejudices.
6] Focalization:
{Perspective of the narrator is called focalization. Narratives can be non-focalized, internally focalized or externally focalized.}
In movie Rustom Patriotism was in focalization .
