Structuralists

Structuralists are scholars who believe that underlying structures shape human thought and behavior. They analyze various fields, including language, literature, anthropology, and psychology, to identify these hidden patterns and relationships. Structuralists emphasize the importance of systems and relationships over individual elements, arguing that the meaning of an element is derived from its position within the overall structure. They seek to understand the universal laws governing these structures, often employing methods such as binary oppositions and linguistic analysis to uncover them. This approach often focuses on uncovering universal patterns that are often found across disciplines. Structuralists are concerned with how specific elements fit into broader systems.

Structuralists meaning with examples

• Linguists, as Structuralists, analyze grammar to reveal underlying rules governing sentence formation, viewing language as a system of interconnected signs. Their work deconstructed the ways that different languages followed a unique pattern. Ferdinand de Saussure's emphasis on the relationship between the signifier and the signified reflects a structuralist perspective focusing on the meaning generated within the linguistic structure.
• Literary critics, influenced by structuralism, examine narrative structures and recurring themes in texts, arguing that individual works' meanings emerge from their relationship to the overarching literary system. This approach provides a framework for comparison of narratives. The structuralist lens allowed critics to identify common patterns and analyze how authors manipulate structural elements.
• Anthropologists, embracing structuralist methods, explore kinship systems, myths, and rituals to reveal underlying cultural structures and symbolic meanings, identifying universal patterns in human behavior. They believed cultures could be understood in terms of their systems. Lévi-Strauss's work in anthropology showed that cultures had structures similar to the structure of language.
• Psychologists, adopting a structuralist view, analyze the structure of consciousness by breaking down mental processes into their basic elements and identifying the relations between them. This allowed for a breakdown in mental processes for scientific study. Wilhelm Wundt, one of the founders of psychology, saw the subject as a conscious experience broken down into elemental parts.
• In art, Structuralists focus on the formal elements (lines, shapes, colors) and their interrelationships, arguing that the meaning of a work of art arises from its structural arrangement. This approach emphasizes the design. By analyzing the structure of composition, Structuralists seek to identify the principles of visual organization that affect the viewer's experience.