Chapter 2: Structuralism
things are not understood in isolation units combine with each other based on rules the world is made up of structures, made up of systems, made up of units structuralist analysis - interrelationship of units and rules - meaning linguistics - a structuralist perspective: literary texts are made up of language, which is made up of words (units) and grammar (rules) 9 Nov 2015 structure is universal; content may differ - ex: Mad Libs Meanings are outside; attributed - human mind structures units and rules to give meaning focus on chickens (structures) not eggs (individual texts/ elements) everything is understood in terms of larger context structure remains constant - universal elements and their interpretations may differ based on sociocultural context no text has inherent, intrinsic meaning; meaning is attributed to it by us deeply rooted in linguistics (the science of language) Ferdinand de Saussure literature is made up of language (language is a signi...