strukturalistische

Strukturalistische is an adjective used in several languages, notably German and Dutch, to describe ideas, theories, or methods associated with structuralism. Structuralism is an approach that seeks to analyze cultural phenomena in terms of underlying structures—rules, oppositions, and relations that generate meaning and behavior rather than surface features alone.

In linguistics, structuralists such as Ferdinand de Saussure distinguished langue (the system of language) from parole (actual speech), arguing that meaning arises from differences within a linguistic system. In anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss applied structural analysis to myths, kinship, and social institutions, proposing universal cognitive patterns behind cultural forms.

Core concepts include the primacy of structure, the analysis of relationships over isolated elements, and the use of binary oppositions, transformations, and rules to uncover how meaning is produced. Methods often involve systematic comparison, codification of rules, and semiotics—the study of signs and sign processes.

The structuralist movement attained prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in France and Europe, influencing literature, folklore, anthropology, and psychoanalysis. It faced criticism from post-structuralist thinkers in the 1960s onward, who argued that texts and cultures resist fixed meanings and that structures themselves are unstable or contingent.

Today, strukturalistische ideas continue to be used as descriptors for approaches that emphasize underlying structures, though many scholars have revised or integrated structuralist concepts with later theoretical currents such as semiotics, cognitive science, and critical theory.