School of thought

Structuralism

Movement

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Classification

Period
c. 1950-1975 CE
Regions
europe
Domains
Philosophy of Language

Overview

Structuralism analyzes cultural phenomena — language, myths, kinship, literature — as systems of signs governed by underlying structures. Inspired by Saussure's linguistics, Levi-Strauss applied structural analysis to anthropology, Barthes to semiotics and literature, and Althusser to Marxism. The individual subject is decentered; meaning arises not from intention but from the system of differences.

Key ideas

  • Sign System: Meaning is produced not by the relation between words and things but by differences within a system of signs. 'Cat' means what it does because it differs from 'bat,' 'cap,' etc.
  • Deep Structures: Beneath the surface variety of myths, kinship systems, and cultural practices lie universal, unconscious structures — binary oppositions that organize human thought.
  • Decentering the Subject: The individual is not the author of meaning. Structures — linguistic, social, unconscious — speak through us rather than being created by us.

Key figures

Ferdinand de Saussure (precursor, d. 1913) · Claude Levi-Strauss · Roland Barthes · Louis Althusser

Methods used

Influenced by

  • Marxism

    Marxism shaped Althusser's and Barthes's structural analyses of ideology and culture, grafting the analysis of power onto the Saussurean model of the sign.

Later connections

  • Deconstruction Reacted to this tradition

    Derrida's 1966 lecture 'Structure, Sign, and Play' attacked the structuralist assumption of a stable center, turning structuralism's own tools against it.

  • Post-Structuralism Reacted to this tradition

References

  • François Dosse, History of Structuralism (University of Minnesota Press, 1997)
  • Course in General Linguistics — Ferdinand de Saussure
  • The Savage Mind — Claude Levi-Strauss
  • Mythologies — Roland Barthes