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Structuralism in Literature II Structuralism in Linguistics II Literary Theory II Literary Movements
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hello friends
welcome again friends
structuralism this is a very
tricky topic which most of the students
find very difficult to understand
and friends don't worry in today's lecture
lecture
we are going to understand it in a very
simpler easier manner
friends structuralism is
a modern literary movement
it is a literary theory in the field of
criticism which was developed by
ferdinand the socio
remember this name ferdinand because he
is considered as the founder
as the father of structuralism
in literature in european and american literature
literature
friends when we come to the 20th century
modern literature okay that means when
we talk
about the first half of the
20th century 1900 to 1950
you know we have different theories like symbolism
symbolism
imageism expressionism existentialism
structuralism and so on but
among all these theories you know structuralism
structuralism
is considered as the most important
critical theory
in literature ferdinand d
sasyar he was a swiss
linguist swiss means he lived in switzerland
switzerland
okay and he was a linguist linguist means
means
a person who studies language
a person who is doing research in the
field of
language so ferdinand was
a man a thinker
living in switzerland he studied
linguistics and philosophy
okay he propounded he propounded means
he developed
a new theory in the field of language
which was later on known as
structuralist theory which was later on known
known
as structuralism okay now
ferdinand basically he believed that
language should be seen should be taken
as a social and cultural phenomena
right language you cannot separate
from the society you cannot separate language
language
from the tradition from the culture okay
and he believed that language and
meaning are governed are controlled
by two two things lang
and perol friends we are going to
discuss these terms
in detail later in this video
okay but let me give you a brief
background to understand structuralism
friends structuralism
the word which is hidden in this term
is the word structure structure means
data okay everything
in this world has its own
structure nothing in this world can
exist without structures let me give an example
example
like this whole solar system right
it has its own structure it has
a sun it has some planets every planet
has some country a planet has some
continents continents have some
uh countries countries are subdivided
into states
and states into districts and all okay
so if you examine you know the whole
solar system
has its own structure in the same manner
you take an example of human body okay
human body has its own structure human body
body
is made of skin blood bonds
muscles and everything is governed
by one thing i mean two things one your heart
heart
which is pumping blood into all parts
or to to all parts of your body and
everything is governed by your nervous
system that means your brain
right so it has its own structure human body
body
you know ah you take this example as you
can see in this picture
you know on the left hand side there is
a break now greek
is in itself a complete structure
brick is made of sand
of cement and clay and everything right
so break has its own structure so greek
is complete
in itself but then you know
we believe that only brick is useless
right brick is of no use but
the same breaks when they come together and
and
make a proper structure it becomes a
building which is very useful
for mankind okay so the building has its
own structure
buildings are made of the bricks but
brick has its own structure
right so everywhere wherever you go
you know you cannot find anything
which has no structure everything in
this world has its own structure now
let me give an example from literature
we are the students of literature
in literature also we find structures
like when we dress when we study drama
you know it has some structure like it
has plot
character dialogue thought philosophy of
life everything come together to make
a complete structure which is known as
a drama right even if you take plot
okay plot is one element of struct
of this structure of drama but plot
itself has its own structure right
uh as you can see in this diagram like
plot has x position then rising action
then climax then falling action and then resolution
resolution
and then you mark then you are means the
end okay
so it has its own structure plot and plot
plot
is used in drama and drama
has so many different elements which
make it a drama
a complete drama so friends we
cannot escape from structuralism
structuralism is actually not a new
concept for us
right we have been studying structures
in literature
when we are studying sonnet say for
example when you study a sonnet it has
its own structure
of 14 lines it has its own meter
it has its own rhyming scheme and everything
everything
make us experience sonic okay
a different structure we have which
makes it a petrarchans on it
a different structure which have which
we have
it makes it uh miltonics on it spin
syrians on it
every sonnet has its own structure and
literature must be studied as for
considering these all structures as we study
study
right now let me give you
an idea uh to understand this structuralism
structuralism
right to understand structuralism first
of all
you need to understand the difference
of criticism that we find during modern era
era
and the traditional 19th or 18th century
right before 1920s the critics
used to interpret literature as
singular works right okay for example
william wordsworth during the 19th in
the beginning of the 19th century
he wrought the poem japanese right and
the critics used to criticize that poem
and that poem was known as a work
of art okay and that work of
art was considered as complete
in itself right so uh the meaning
according to the 19th century critics come
come
from that that uh singular work of art
so meaning was
close ended right during the 19th century
century
18th century 17th century but
after 1920s if you come to the modern era
era
you know the whole scene is changed
okay here the critics approach towards
literature is totally changed now
the poems the novels the plays
they were not considered as works of
arts they were considered as
tags okay so their focus
was more on text now what's the
difference between text
and work of art a work of art is complete
complete
it has language it has meter it has
rhythm and everything right but text
means language text means the use of
language so the 20th century critics
after 1920s they focused
their attention to study the language
used by the poets in that particular
text whether it is a drama or a
novel or a short story or a poem whatever
whatever
right so works were now considered
as tags now thanks what are these tags
that's as i told you
they are nothing but linguistic structures
structures
structures means uh for example a poem right
right
a poem is according to the modern critics
critics
they the poem is a linguistic
structure and texts have their own
language and language has multiple
interpretations right by understanding
the language
the critics should develop a lot of meanings
meanings
out of the text so the 20th century critics
critics
structuralis they believed that language
which is used
which is the most important part of
uh of the text which is used by the poet
it gives us so many multiple meanings
and meanings come from while from where
that we are going to discuss so you know
i have presented this comparison you
know before
1920s uh the
literature the pieces of literature they
were known as works
okay after 1920s they are now known
as tanks literature was taken as a work of
of
art before 1920s after 1920s
they are known as tags literary works
were interpreted considering
the biographical the historical and
comparative methods right
if you have studied teen time gave us
the formula
of race milieu and moment he believed
that before
understanding the the work the
critic must see the race million moment
saint view also talked about the
biographical study
of the author biographical study of the literature
literature
and he said that you need to understand
the author first
to understand the work of art so during
the 19th century
you know the focus was not on the work
of art
the focus was on where the author comes from
from
what is his tradition what is his race
during which period he was living
all these was the focus so focus was not
on the
works of art it was somewhere else but
if you come to the 20th century
all biographical social philosophical
criticism was discarded was rejected
and now the focus is mainly
on the text which is written
by the author right meanings
where before 1920s the meanings
came from by focusing on the works
uh itself and the author right the work
and the author
meaning comes from there but if you talk
about 1920s
meaning comes from the text itself
from the language used by the poet okay
before 1920s the works were
closed ended and conveyed limited
meanings right but after 1920s
it they were considered as tax and
tax are open and they they convey
uh multiple meanings right so
uh having created this background let's
now try to
understand the theory of structuralism
as developed by ferdinand ferdinand
taught linguistics okay let me give you
some basic
information biographical information
about this scholar
ferdinand was a teacher of linguistics
at school of advanced studies in paris
okay for ten years he taught linguistics there
there
he also taught indo-european linguistics
and sanskrit
for yet another 10 years from 1901 to 1911
1911
okay let me tell you ferdinand was
a great sanskrit scholar right in fact
he did his
phd in sanskrit language and literature
right he taught linguistics and sanskrit
in university of geneva from 1907
to 1911. so all during his lifetime
whatever lectures he delivered you know
they were compiled by his colleagues
and by his students and these lectures
you know were written down by the
students and the scholars
right and they were published under the title
title
of a book course in general linguistics
which was published
after his death in 1915.
now remember this work is very important
course in general linguistics published
in 1915
you know it brought about a revolutionary
revolutionary
new change in modern criticism
it brought brought about a new theory
of structuralism okay now
to understand this theory you know we
need to
understand several terms as given by ferdinand
ferdinand
in his lectures right so the first term
is episteme right episteme
is what it is a construct of language
okay in order to know anything
you know you need to learn language
can you imagine your life without language
language
no right even when you think about something
something
you know you think with the help of
language so language is very important friends
friends
you know without which you even cannot think
think
right so language is a construct of uh
sorry episteme is a construct of
language which is
very important this is the first term
now let's go
ahead you know he believed ferdinand
believed that language is a
structure as a building has its own structure
structure
human body has its own structure the
solar system
has its own structure in the same manner
you know language also has its own structure
structure
if you examine any language very closely
you will find that it is governed by
some rules right
like if you talk about english language
we have the proper structure
of subject and predicate okay the
sentence begins
with the subject followed by the verb
followed by the object okay this is
a structure of english language moreover
if you examine the words also have their
own structure
if you examine the words you know
whenever you find
q in your word q is
mostly followed by you right
so like for example quin quarter
quality any word you take q is
always followed by you so that means
there is some structure
in in the words okay you cannot use language
language
using consonants another example like
only consonants
cannot make your language so language
has its structure
in which consonants and wobbles okay
swar and both are compulsory both
are needed so it has its structure
in which it is produced every language
has this structure another term
which you need to understand is lang l-a-n-g-u-e
l-a-n-g-u-e
lang means the set of rules okay
the same thing which we discussed here
right language as a structure
language has structure means it has some
rules right
so language has lang lang means
some rules right and we have to follow the
the
rules and parallel parallel means the
actual use of that language
so when we are uh speaking this language
or when we are writing this language
we have to follow the lang
of that language that means we have to follow
follow
the rules of that language we have to follow
follow
the structure of that language and we if
if we do not follow this you know your language
language
becomes meaningless if you want to
give some meaning in your language you
need to follow
lang and perol means the actual speech
or actual use of language it means to
use the words in your language
as for your requirements in different situations
situations
different context now friends these two
three terms sorry
these three terms are very important to understand
understand
and they are signed signifier
and signified okay ferdinand
gave a new concept of sign
sign means what sign means any word
or a small unit of language say for example
example
when i say the word chair
right c h a i r so chair
is a sign right when i use the word in written
written
form c-h-a-i-r
it is a sign when i use the word table
t-a-b-l-e it is a
sign right and now this sign has its two parts
parts
and these two parts are signifier
and signified okay signifier
and signified signifier means what
it means the word which we
read or the sound which we hear right
one word which is written that written word
word
is called a sign and when we read that word
word
okay or when somebody speaks a word it
is a sign but when we listen to that the
sound that we receive
is called the signifier okay
so signifier means the meaning
which we sorry signifier
is the sound which we hear and after
hearing the sound
that sound we understand some meaning
so that meaning is known as
signified three steps the written word
chair is the sign
okay and when somebody speaks this word chair
chair
you listen to that word chair it becomes
your signifier
and after listening to this that word
the picture of chair comes before your
mental eyes
the image of chair that comes to your mind
mind
is the meaning which is known as
signified okay signifier
is more important than signified
now the signifier is very difficult
why because uh the same sound when
i listen to one sound and if you listen
to the same
sound sometimes it so happens that you have
have
some different image in your mind and
i have a different image in my mind
okay so the sign is same
signifier is same but
sometimes signified is different
why what happens so
according to ferdinand sister you know
the meaning depends upon
the culture of the person who receives
the signs
who receives the signifiers right it
depends upon
our own bringing up it depends upon
upon our own social surroundings depends
upon the context in which it is spoken
right so that's why you know ferdinand said
said
that language is arbitrary
arbitrary means personal subjective
what i mean you may not mean okay what
i understand you may not understand
because i have my own personal power of
understanding you have your own
personal power of understanding okay so
language 49 said is governed
by culture by society by religion
by tradition and so many different aspects
aspects
okay let me give an example like if
somebody speaks
a word tree right then what happens
you now t r double e this tree
is a sign but when you listen to this word
word
it is a signifier but
you know uh three persons for example
listen to this word
so three persons have their images
in their mind one person uh might
think about the ape the tree of an april
right april tree another person might
have an image of a mango tree
in his mind or the third person might have
have
the image of a banyan breed right
so one word one sign one signifier
but the three different meanings come
out of
that okay it may mean and
three an apple tree or a mango tree
or a banyan tree so meaning is
arbitrary remember these things meaning
is subjective
it depends upon your personal thinking
and second thing
which ferdinand gave is language
is binary binary means it has
two forces right language is understood
by two different forces right meaning
can be understood by understanding the binary
binary
oppositions of the words each word
has two binary oppositions like language
is understood by comparing and
contrasting if somebody says
that this is a mobile
right we use a mobile right so
why do you say this is a mobile this is
a mobile why because it
is not a tablet so you are comparing right
right
why why this is a mobile because it is not
not
a computer right so uh
let me give another example like if
somebody wants to say
light you understand light how do you
understand light
because you have understood darkness
you just imagine had there been no
darkness in this world
then there would have been uh there
would have it would be would have been difficult
difficult
to understand light the value of light
so light
is understood by comparing it
with darkness right they
is understood by comparing it with
uh the knives right a chair
it is called a chair why because it is
not a table
right a bike is bike
why because it is not a car right so
language or the words which are used in
language they are binary
right we understand the meanings you
know considering the
binary oppositions right so this these
are the two
theories which he has developed two
concepts which he has developed
number one language is binary right
it is understood by considering two
different forces
it is understood by comparing and contrasting
contrasting
okay and second concept is language
is arbitrary language the meaning
lies in the mind of the reader so
language is
personal right the meanings come out
of the reader's mind because it is subjective
subjective
right so these two concepts which he has
developed and he said that
when the critique reads the text
okay so multiple meanings come out from
that text why
because the language is same the sign is same
same
okay but the signified
is different it is different from a
person to person
from a critique to critique from a
reader to leader
and that's why you know tax these people believe
believe
tax have multiple meanings right so
friends before we conclude let me tell
you who were the major
structuralists of the 20th century
ferdinand was there he was the
founder of structuralism apart from him
there were a host of writers host of
means there were
many other writers and thinkers who followed
followed
structuralism in europe and america
if i talk about europe then rollaback
okay levi strauss frank kermard david lodge
lodge
they were the important uh european structuralist
structuralist
but if we talk about american structuralism
structuralism
after 1960s we have norm chomsky
charles morris c as pirates etc
these were the american structuralists
so friends
let's conclude in these three four
topics number one ferdinand the
cheshire is considered as the
founder as the father of structuralism
during the first half of the 20th century
century
okay this 20th century new criticism
focuses not on the works which are closed
closed
and it focuses on the text
which are considered as open-ended
it means it has multiple meanings right
why because meaning is
personal meaning is arbitrary right
texts are considered as linguistic structures
structures
so the readers the critics must
study the text itself the author
is dead that is what rollerback said
rolabat said that you need not study the author
author
which background he comes from what is
his tradition
during which period he was living in
which social background he was
brought up nothing is important text is important
important
why because the meaning comes from the
text and text is a linguist linguistic
structure right language is arbitrary
and binary and so that's why
the texts have so many meanings
multiple meanings so friends i hope the
idea is clear to you
if you have any doubts or questions do
write to me in the comment section of
this channel
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