strukturalizmi

Strukturalizam, known in English as structuralism, is an intellectual movement in the humanities and social sciences that seeks to understand cultures, languages, and societies as systems of interrelated structures. Its central claim is that meanings arise from relations within a structure rather than from individual elements in isolation.

Origins and core ideas: It arose most prominently in linguistics through Ferdinand de Saussure, who distinguished langue (the abstract system of language) from parole (actual speech) and argued that signs derive meaning from their differences and positions in a system. In anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss applied these ideas to myths, kinship, and social practices, seeking universal patterns in human thought. In linguistic theory and semiotics, figures such as Roland Barthes and others analyzed texts as structures governed by codes, conventions, and binary oppositions.

Impact and methods: Structuralists study underlying rules and relations—e.g., linguistic structures, narrative codes, and discourses—rather than author intention or surface content. The approach has been influential across linguistics, anthropology, folklore, literary criticism, and cultural studies.

Criticism and legacy: Structuralism faced critique for treating culture as closed systems and downplaying historical change, individual agency, and power dynamics. In the 1960s–1970s, post-structuralist and deconstructionist theories challenged its foundations. Nevertheless, structuralist methods continue to shape contemporary semiotics, narratology, and analytical frameworks in several disciplines.

Note: The term may appear in various languages as strukturalizam/strukturalizam (strukturalizmi in plural form).