strutturalismo

Strutturalismo, known in English as structuralism, is an intellectual movement that analyzes cultural, linguistic, and social phenomena as systems of underlying structures rather than as isolated events. It emerged from the work of Ferdinand de Saussure in linguistics, who distinguished langue, the abstract system of signs, from parole, actual speech, and treated the sign as a relationship between signifier and signified within a network of differences. This focus on structures and relations underpinned much subsequent analysis across disciplines.

In anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss applied structuralist methods to myths, kinship, and social practices, arguing that human cultures share universal cognitive structures expressed through binary oppositions and deep grammars of the mind. In literary theory and semiotics, structuralism examined how texts generate meaning through underlying codes, conventions, and organizational rules, often downplaying authorial intent. Key figures include Roland Barthes, Algirdas Greimas, and others who developed narratology, semiotic analysis, and the notion of structures governing discourse.

Structuralism had a major influence during the 1950s–1970s in linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and literary studies. It faced criticism and gave way to post-structuralist approaches, which questioned the stability of structures and emphasized language, power, and context. Despite criticisms, structuralism contributed enduring concepts such as the primacy of systems, relations, and codes, and helped establish methods in semiotics, narratology, and comparative studies.