Modernity and Postmodernism: Structuralism and Deconstructionism

Structuralism
Structuralism is a method used by sociologists, anthropologists, literary theorists,
and linguists.
They employ it to show how all aspects of culture are based upon some underlying
structure. These structures are formed by interrelations. Therefore, Structuralism is
an intellectual literary movement which was commenced in France in the 1950s.
The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was the first intellectual who applied this
intellectual movement in his works. Ronald Barthes put forward this movement by
applying it in his works. However, its origin is in the works of Ferdinand de
Saussure in his development of the structural linguistics.

It was extending from linguistics to other disciplines as well and the concepts of
structuralism achieved widespread influence throughout the 1960s, 1970s and
1980s. Hence, it is also difficult to describe structuralism in a single definition or
proposition. However, it can be said that the essence of structuralism is the belief
that nothing can be understood in isolation and everything must be seen in the
context of the larger structure(s) it is a part of it. This looking for a bigger structure
of everything is called structuralism.

Structuralism is “an approach to literary analysis that flourished in the 1960s. By

utilizing the techniques, methodologies, and vocabulary of linguistics as articulated
by Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism offers a scientific view of how we achieve
meaning not only in literary works but in all forms of communication and social
behavior”.

Structuralists believe that codes, signs, and rules govern all social and cultural
practices, including communication, the "language" of sports, friendships,
education, and literature. They wish to discover those codes that they believe give
meaning to all our social and cultural customs. The proper study of meaning and
therefore reality is an examination of the system behind these practices, not the
individual practices themselves.

For the structuralist, the proper study of literature becomes a study of the conditions
surrounding the act of interpretation itself, not an in-depth investigation of an
individual work. Structuralists believe that a study of the grammar, or the system of
rules that govern literary interpretation, becomes the critic's primary task.

Practiced by such critics as Jonathan Culler, Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes, and
Gerard Genette, structuralism challenged New Criticism's methodology for finding
meaning within a text.
Ferdinand de Saussure's “ A Course in General Linguistics”
Ferdinand de Saussure's “ A Course in General Linguistics” (1916)is a summary of
his lectures at the University of Geneva from 1906-1911. In these lectures, Saussure
examines the relationship between speech and the evolution of language, and
investigates language as a structure system of signs.

This book consists of the following:

Part One: General Principles
Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics
Part Three: Diachronic Linguistics Part Four: Geographical Linguistics
Part Five: Retrospective Linguistics
Appendix – Principles of Phonology

Saussure defines Linguistics as – “The study of language, the study of the

manifestations of human speech”.

He claims that linguistics is related to the history of language, and to the social or
cultural influences that shape the development of language. Linguistics also
includes the following studies:

Phonology: the study of the sound patterns of language.

Phonetics: study the production and perception of the sounds of speech.
Morphology: the study of word formation and structure.
Syntax: study of grammar and sentence structure.
Semantics: the study of meaning.
Pragmatics: the study of the purposes and effects of uses of language and language
acquisition.

Saussure’s Langue and Parole

These two terms “Langue and Parole” comprise some of the basic elements
communication.
Langue is “The linguistic term used by Ferdinand de Saussure to refer to the rules
that comprise a language or the structure of the language that is mastered and shared
by all its speakers. By the age of five or six, children have mastered their language's
langue, although they have not mastered the exceptions”. This means that Langue
includes all the images and words that come to mind and the method of arranging
the words and images to produce langue.

Parole is “a linguistic term used by Ferdinand de Saussure and others to refer to an

individual's actual speech utterances, as opposed to langue, the rules that comprise a
language. An individual can generate countless examples of parole, but all will be
governed by the language's structure, its langue. For Saussure and other linguists,
the proper study of linguistics is the system, the langue, not parole”.
Noam Chomsky “Competence and Performance”
Noam Chomsky’s “Competence and Performance” are equivalent to De Saussure’s
“Langue and Parole”.

Competence: is equivalent of “Langue”, this is the ability, capacity, and potential

that is there to be tapped.

Performance: is the equivalent for “Parole”, which remains an action word in

Chomsky’s version, he uses the name “performance”.

Langue (Chomsky’s “Competence”) is the sum of all the combined aspects of a

language system,

Parole (Chomsky’s “Performance”) is the actual exercise of language through

speaking.

Sign according to Saussure

According to Saussure is constituted by signifier and signified.

Sign
The Object/Thing

Signifier Signified
The Physical existence The Mental Concept
(Sound, word, image) Fruit, apple, freshness, teacher,
Red, leaf, round, apple doctor, car, etc.

The Fundamental Assumptions of Linguistics

There are three fundamental assumptions of linguistics according to .Saussure
which are: Arbitrariness, Relational and Systematic
1- Arbitrariness
- There is no relation between Word and Meaning
- Word has no quality to suggest meaning.
- Language cannot reflect reality
- Language is a system in itself.
- Language refers only to itself.
- All words lead to other words.
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2- Relational: Indicates that no word has its meaning in isolation.

Differences Meaning
e.g: CAT , CAP , HAT
3-Systematic: Saussure argues that language is systematic. This means that
Meaning is produced is equivalent to acts of language.

Sign and sign system

Study
Language is thus form/not substance.

Saussure’s Synchronic and Diachronic Linguistics

1-Diachronic Linguistics: Dia means through, between, across, by, of, akin to.
“The root word chronic means time. So diachronic linguistics is the study of
language across, through or between time(s). e.g: The study of the development of
Chaucer’s middle English to become Shakespeare’s English and then to develop
into contemporary English.

2- Synchronic Linguistics: studies language in a fixed time period without

reference to any other time period, either past or future. The concern of synchronic
linguistics is to get beneath the variations of words, or content, and to find the
intrinsic relationship of words to other words, the langue of language.
The word “Synchronic” is derived from the Latin and is defined as “occurring at the
same time; coinciding in time”. Saussure proposed that language as a system of
signs be studied as a complete system at any given point in time.

A Synchronic relationship is one where two similar things exist at the same
time. While the Diachronic is the change in the meaning of words over time.
Saussure criticized current linguistics as seeking to understand language changes
but not why it changed or what underlying factors where changing. He thus moved
the study of language from diachronic to synchronic relationships.

Deconstruction
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) is considered the father of
Deconstructionism. It is a critique of structuralism. Derrida accepts the ground of
Sausser’s linguistics just to dismantle it.
Deconstructionism (1969) is a method of critical analysis of philosophical and
literary language. Also, it is regarded a strategy of critical questioning directed
toward exposing:
1-Unquestiobable Metaphysical assumptions
2-Internal contradictions in philosophical language
3-Literary language

Basic Principles of Deconstructionism

There are a number of principles which allocates deconstructionism:
1-Deconstruction reinforces the internal working of a language and conceptual
system.
2-The method of using language and the nature of the used expressions that
determine the actuality of deconstructionism.
3-It is a method of enquiry that all writings are full of confusion and contradiction
by his deliberate efforts of conveying meaning.
4-There is nothing outside or beyond the text.
5-The notion of difference.
6-Every text deconstruct itself.
7-Structure.
8-Sign
9-Play

Structure, Sign and Play

▪ Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences’ is a seminal essay
that Derrida delivered in 1968.
▪ It critique the very idea of structure.
▪ In any assumed structure, Derrida questions the fixity of Centre and argues
for the free-play of Centre and margin.

Structural Linguistics is “a term used synonymously with linguistics, the science

of language”.
Sign is “ a term used in linguistics and first used by the French structuralist
Ferdinand de Saussure to denote the definition for a word. According to Saussure, a
word is not a symbol that equals something else, but is a sign (something that has
meaning) composed of both a signifier and a signified. For Saussure, a word does
not represent a referent in the objective world, but a concept in our minds”.

Signifier and Signified

Derrida questions the finality of signified.
He asserts that in language we keep moving from one signifier to other and the
ultimate meaning or supposed signified remains elusive.
Saussure maintained that by virtue if their differences signs refer to the meaning
that exists in the external world but Derrida maintains that there is nothing outside
language and language is self-referential.

Signifier is “a term used by the French structuralist Ferdinand de Saussure that

denotes one part of a word. The signifier is the spoken or written constituent such as
the sound /t/ and the orthographic (written) symbol t”.

Signified is “a term used by the French structuralist Ferdinand de Saussure that

denotes one part of a word. Saussure proposes that all words are really signs that are
composed of two parts: the signifier and the signified. The signified is the concept
to which the signifier, a written or spoken word or sound, refers. Like the two sides
of a sheet of paper, the linguistic sign is the union of the signifier and the
signified”.

Differance
Derrida coins the term “Difference” which is constituted of “differ” and “defer”.
One signifier is always different from the other and it keeps postponing the other.
No sign is completed in itself.
Half of it is something else and that is never there.
There is always some lack, some incompleteness. So no entity is a unified whole.

Differance Introduced by the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida.

Differance is derived from the French word differer, meaning (1) to defer,
postpone, or delay, and (2) to differ, to be different from. Derrida deliberately
coined this word to be ambiguous, taking on both meanings simultaneously.
One of the keys to understanding deconstruction, differance is Derrida's "What if"
question. What if there is no ultimate truth? What if there is no essence, being, or
inherently unifying element in the universe? What then? Derrida's answer is that all
meaning or interpretations of a text are undecidable, for a text can have innumerable
meanings and interpretations.

Logocentricism and Phonocentricism

Derrida demolishes the tradition of logocentricism and phonocentricism. He
maintains that there is no God, no center in the universe. He proved that writing is
not inferior to speech.
Derrida demolishes the difference between metaphor and metaphysics by referring
to the analogy of palimpsest propounded by Aantole France. He argues that the
texts of philosophy have metaphorical sedimentation/credentials. So even
philosophy can not lay claim to truth.

Logocentrism is “a term used by the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida that

refers to Western culture's proclivity for desiring absolute truths, or what Derrida
calls "centers." Logocentrism is therefore the belief that there is an ultimate reality
or center of truth that can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and actions”.

Phonocentrism is “a term coined by the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida

that asserts that Western culture privileges or prefers speech over writing”.

Aporia
Aporia is: A deadlock of meaning. No conclusion. "state of the aporetic" and "a
perplexity or difficulty".

Thesis and Antithesis remain opposed to each other without any possibility of
Synthesis.
Deconstruction in General:
In short, Derrida Deconstructionism means: No text has absolute meaning.
There is always some possibility of some new interpretation.
A text is multilayered.
Language id entirely metaphorical.
He demolished distinction between literature and non-literature