Structuralism (2)

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Structuralism (2)

• De Saussure Q A
• Structuralist Anthropology
• Levi Strauss , Example 1, ????,Should Wizard Hit
  Mommy
• Structuralist Narratology
• V. Propp, Examples 1, 2, 3 Should Wizard Hit
  Mommy
• A. J. Greimas Example 1 Should Wizard Hit
  Mommy

Readings for next week
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Structuralism (2)

• 1. Structuralism--Basic Concepts
• 2. Structuralist Reading of Narratives
• 3. Semiotics and "The Myth Today"
• 4. From Structuralism to Poststructuralism
  Binary Opposition Deconstruction

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Q A (1) de Saussure, Language and Reality

• What does it mean to say that language system is
  arbitrary, conventional and differential?
• Does our language shape or reflect our perception
  of the world?
• Does it make a difference to call your mothers
  sister ??, aunt or Jenny?
• If we do not have the word, ?, will we feel that
  meeting someone is a matter of fortunate
  pre-destination?
• Is there any eternal or universal essence of
  mother or maternal love? Can we define them
  without using language (as a system of relations
  and difference)?

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Q A (2) de Saussures Major ideas?

• 1. The synchronic vs. the diachronic langue vs.
  parole
• 2. Language is a system of difference. Meaning
  occurs in binary opposition between two signs.
  (e.g. toy, boy)
• 3. sign signifier and signified the connection
  between them is arbitrary.

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Q A (3) Form and Structure?

• Form is inseparable from meaning
• (composed of all the literary elements in a text)
  
• Structure is what makes meaning possible.
• (e.g. b vs. p subjpredicate cooked vs.
  raw, etc.)

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Claude Levi-Strauss

• 1. Studies culture as a sign system e.g. eating
  customs, taboos related to menstruation,
  initiation rites, kinship relations. (e.g. ring
  in Chinese society ??)
• 2. Kinship system structures how things or
  people are exchanged within a culture. e.g.
  women in exchange for dowry.
• 3. We think in terms of binaries. (e.g. raw vs.
  cooked good vs. bad)
• 4. Myth basic units mythemes, e.g. in Oedipus
  myth overrelating and underrating of blood
  relations

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Claude Levi-Strauss on Oedipus the King

• overrelating of blood relations Oedipus
  marries his mother Antigone buries her brother,
  despite prohibition native-born
• underrating of blood relations Oedipus kills
  his father, Laios escape being native-born
• The heroic Oedipus kills the Sphinx
• The supernatural/pre-destined
  Oedipusswollen foot prophecy

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Claude Levi-Strauss on Myth

• Mythical thought always progresses from the
  awareness of oppositions toward their
  resolution. (Structural Anthropology 224)
• His approach not to find how men think in myths,
  but how myths think in men, unbeknown to them
  (qtd. Hawkes 41)
• Myth always works simultaneously on two axes. .
  .like an orchestral score

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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• The play (interaction) of genres and genders.
• Biological history romance ? feminist utopia
• Male lover, male authorities, masculinity
  different forms of sex wars female lover,
  femininity? female androgyny
• The binaries need definition and they change
  positions.

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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• binaries (ref. ?? 1. Beginning of Quest

??? ??? Present love ??(??or ideal) Past love
???? ? ??vs. ? ??? (masculine vs. feminine) ??vs. ? ????
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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• binaries 2. Conflict/Complication

??? ??? Present love ??(??or ideal) Past
???????? (categorization)? ???? ??vs. ?? ???? ?? ? ??vs. ? ????????
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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• binaries 3. Intensification ? climax

??? ??? Present love ????(??or love) Past
???? (vs. evolution) ? ????( ??) Sex battle??? ?? ? ??vs. ? ????????
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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• binaries 4. 2nd Quest more struggle and battle

??? ??? Present love ?? (??vs. love) Past
???? (debate on evolution) ? ???? ??? ??vs. ?????vs. ? ????
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Levi Strauss examples (2) ????

• binaries 5. resolution (death, writing and
  waiting)? feminist utopia

??? ??? Present love ?? (??vs. love)
???? (symbolic/waiting) ? (writing, waiting, suicide) ? vs ?? ?? ??
??
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Levi Strauss examples (3) Should Wizard Hit
Mommy

• preliminary understanding
• Setting a nuclear family
• Characters Jack, Jo and Clare
• Story within the story Roger, mother, owl,
  wizard and Rogers friends.
• Two sets of relationship between Jack and
  Jofather/daughter, author/reader
• Why is Jack caught in the middle? The middle of
  what?

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Levi Strauss examples (3) Should Wizard Hit
Mommy

• Jack and Jofather/daughter, author/reader

Confirming kinship Denying kinship
Reading story at nap times wants Jo to learn Jos interruptions
helping his wife The wifes doing it herself
defending his mother Wants the wizard to beat Mommy
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Structuralist narratology Vladimir Propp

• syntax as the basic model Subject predicate
  Actor function
• Propp 7 actors, or "spheres of action"
  (villain, hero, false hero, donorprovider,
  helper, dispatcher, princess and her father)
  and 31 functions.
• Actors are not characters they are narrative
  functions, or types of actions of the characters.
  
• One character can be different actors at
  different moments. (e.g. Cinderella Snow White,
  The Long Enchantment.)

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Propp examples (1) Briar Rose

• A family in lack ?
• Queen (bathing) Toad (H) ? A princess
• King in pride (False Hero only twelve golden
  plates )? feast
• the 11 Wise Women bless (donor) vs. the 13th
  curses (villain),
• 12th Wise Woman not death but 100-year sleep
  (helper)
• 11 gifts fulfilled, 1 curse shunned

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Propp examples (1) Briar Rose

• The King and Queens absence (dispatcher) ?
• the 15-year-old princess out looking into the
  rooms ?
• old tower and the spindle ? The spindles sound
  merry but brings the curse on the princess she
  falls into sleep.?
• Every being in the kingdom sleeps too. (the
  princess the kingdom)

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Propp examples (1) Briar Rose

• Only thorny hedges grow, which kill a lot of
  princes (false heroes) in their attempts to
  rescue the princess
• 100 year pass, a kings son comes and hears about
  the story he is not afraid he wants to go and
  see the beautiful Briar-rose."
• When the King's son came near to the
  thorn-hedge, it was nothing but large and
  beautiful flowers

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Propp examples (1) Briar Rose

• There she lay, so beautiful that he could not
  turn his eyes away and he stooped down and gave
  her a kiss. But as soon as he kissed her,
  Briar-rose opened her eyes and awoke, and looked
  at him quite sweetly.
• Without the helper (the 12th Wise Woman),
  prince cannot rescue Briar Rose.
• Is the princess
• Punished for her curiosity? 2) only waiting to be
  rescued? 3) just confirmed for her beauty?

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Propp examples (1-2) The Long Enchantment

• How is this animation different from the
  traditional tale?
• It is the horse but not the princess that falls
  asleep
• villain? wizard offers the pear for no reason
• Rescuer not a prince, but the horse first and
  then Flora
• My spell would break if for your sake a friend
  would dare to eat a pear.
• The fairy godmother cannot help. Promises that
  the pony will survive and waken after 1000 years.
  But then the wizard will still return.
• The kinghelpless burning all the pear trees
  ??only building a memorial

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Example I The Long Enchantment

• Structuralist
• Sender of message Pony
• Receiver Flora
• Subject (Heroine) of a Quest Flora
• Object Pony
• Helper Flora Pony Themselves
• Opponent Wizard?

Not a Fairy Not a Prince
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Example I The Long Enchantment

• 2. Sociological/Ecological
• Floras class background?
• Why is the pear so important?
• Who is the real villain?
• 3. Deconstruction
• The Wizards message. What does the pear
  represent in this text? A thing in nature?
  Delicious food?

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Example 2 Atlanta

• Mytheme marriage of a princess From Greek myth
• Undesirable forsaken and raised during her
  childhood by a bear.
• Love hunting does not love men oracleher
  marriage will end in disaster wins a lot of
  contests
• Her father wants her back ? marry her
• With Aphrodites help, Melanion runs his race
  with Atlanta carrying the apples with him and
  wins over her. But he forgets to thank A.
• Zeus (the infuriated god) turns them both into
  lions.

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Example 2 Atlanta

• Mytheme marriage of a princess From Greek myth
• the roles of the King and the Gods not really
  helpers have their selfish desires and
  prejudices.

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Example 2 Atlanta

• Modern version
• Neither of them wants to get married.

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Propp examples (3)

• James Bonds 007 films
• actor female helpers (usu. appearing in double,
  one from the enemys side and one as Bonds
  comrade)
• 1 major function sex (with which usu. the films
  begin and end).
• ??? in ????(TOMORROW
• NEVER DIES))
• helper but not a lover rescued
• and becomes a lover at the end.

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Propp examples (4) Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

• villain, hero, false hero, donorprovider,
  helper, dispatcher, princess and her father

The story The typical fairy tale in it
The father provider, hero/false hero, Jo Princess? Mother dispatcher? Whos the hero? False hero? Who is the dispatcher? Who is the helper? Opponent? How are the roles in the two stories related to each other?
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Propp examples (4) Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

The story The typical fairy tale in it
The father provider, hero/false hero, Jo Princess? Mother dispatcher? The hero Roger, The dispatcher owl The helper wizard Opponent difficulties -- no princess friends parents in the background (status quo)
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Propp examples (4) Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

The story The last fairy tale in it
The father provider, hero/false hero, Jo Princess? Mother dispatcher? Opponent? The hero Roger/also false hero, The dispatcher owl The helper (?) wizard Opponent (?) mother, friends -- father in the background (status quo)
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Propp Greimas (1)

• Propp's seven 'spheres of action?
• Greimass three pairs of binary oppositions,
  including

and three basic patterns 1. Wanting (Desire,
search, or aim), 2. Exchange (communication) 3.
Contradiction (Auxiliary support or hindrance).

• six roles (actants)
• 1. Subject/Object,
• 2. Sender/ Receiver
• 3. Helper/Opponent-

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Propp Greimas (2)

• Propp's 31 functions ? further abstracted into
• Greimass 3 structures for example

• Propp One member of a family either lacks
  something or desires to have something.

Disequilibrium contract broken, disjunction or
Performative (out for a task)
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A. J. Greimass universal grammar

• three pairs of actants Helper/Opponent,
  Sender/Receiver, Subject/Object
• three basic patterns of action (or syntagm)
• contractive (breaking/setting contract,
  alienation, reintegration ),
• disjunctive (departure, arrival),
• and performative (trial, task).
• ? deep semantic structure of human thinking and
  narrative.

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"the semiotic rectangle

• elementary structure of signification
• a binary opposition their negation
• A - A
• (e.g.hetero- marriage)
  (Adultery)
• - B
  B

contradiction
Pre-supposition
Simple negation
(e.g. incest taboo/homophobia)
(e.g. incest/homosexuality)
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"the semiotic rectangle

• elementary structure of signification
• a binary opposition their negation
• A - A
• (e.g.hetero- marriage)
  (Adultery)
• - B
  B

Neutralized by divorce
Pre-supposition
Complicated by Platonic love
(e.g. incest taboo/homophobia)
(e.g. incest/homosexuality)
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Should Wizard Hit Mommy? with Greimasian
paradigm

• Story
• 1. Father (Sender) Jo (Receiver) ?
• 2. Father (Performative) (Contractual) Jo (O) ?
  
• 3. Father (S) Jo asleep (O)

• Typical S within the story
• 1. Roger (S) ? (Opponent/Sender) ?
• 2. Roger (Disjunctive-depart)(Performative)
  Owl/Wizard (H) ?
• 3. Roger (S) ?(O)?
• 4. Roger (S)(Disjunctive-return) Mother/Home
  (O)? Father (Disjunctive-return)

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Should Wizard Hit Mommy? with Greimasian
paradigm (2)

• Story
• 1. Father (Sender) Jo (Receiver) ?
• 2. Father (Performative) (Contractual) getting
  Jo to sleep (Ob) ?
• 3. Father author (S) Jo reader
  (Opponent)(Contractual) ?
• 4. Father threatens (Performative)/ Jo quiet
• (Ob) 5. Father going downstairs
  (Disjunctive)(Contractual with both the past
  mother and the present wife)

• Last S within the story
• 1. Roger (S) smell (Opponent) ?
• 2. Roger (Disjunctive-depart)(Performative)
  Owl/Wizard (H) ?
• 3. Roger (S) Rose(O)?
• 4. Roger (S)(Disjunctive-return) Mother (not
  Object, but Opponent)
• 5. Mother (S Helper) old Roger (O) ? Wizard
  (Helper) ? old Roger (O)
• 6. Jos Roger (S) Mother (Opponent) ? Wizard
  (Opponent) ? new Roger (S)

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Should Wizard Hit Mommy? with Greimasian
paradigm (3)

Patriarchal authority (through storytelling) Contradiction Daughters growth (through having her opinions

Story--engaging story -- boring
contradiction
Pre-supposition
Simple negation
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Should Wizard Hit Mommy? with Greimasian
paradigm (4)
intensified by the daughter

Patriarchal authority (through storytelling) Contradiction Daughters growth (through having her opinions

Story--engaging story -- boring
Complicated by the Mother the Wifes
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Should Wizard Hit Mommy? with Greimasian
paradigm (5)
Stopped by threat

Patriarchal authority (through storytelling) Contradiction Daughters growth (through having her opinions)

Power and Control Wifes work, Mothers control
Complicated by the Mother the Wifes
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Suggestions

• 1. Usually interesting analysis happens when the
  characters break these categories or confuse
  them. 2. You can set up your own categories. 3.
  This kind of structuralist analysis is more
  useful on popular cultural products or shorter
  texts than novelsthough the latter is not an
  impossible choice.

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Issues for Discussion

• Do we always think in terms of binaries, or two
  pairs of binaries?
• What else do we do after finding out the patterns?

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Reading for next week

• 1. Textbook -- chap 4 15-41

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References

• Greimas Major Ideas http//www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Lit
  erary_Criticism/structuralism/Greimas_quotes.html
  
• Greimas General Introduction http//www.eng.fju.e
  du.tw/Literary_Criticism/structuralism/Greimas.htm
  l
• Semiotic Square http//hypertext.rmit.edu.au/sing
  ing/essay/greimas.html