Sunday 12 January 2020

Thinking Activity : Structuralism


Hello Readers!


This blog is my academic task thinking activity on Structuralism. We know that what is structuralism and what is structuralist critic do. After understanding the concept of Structuralism  We have task on structuralism. Being a structuralist critic, how would you analyse literary text or TV serial or film? We have task that select any image or TV serial or Film or literary text or advertisement and apply structuralist method. This thinking activity given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department MKB university. 


  • Gerard Genette 

Gerard Genette was well known literary critic and  french literary theorists after Roland Barthes. Gebette is primarily associated with structuralism, especially for reintroducing a new rhetorical vocabulary into literary criticism term as narratology,  trope and metonymy etc. Gerard Genette puts forward structuralist criticism as a literary criticism.


  • What is Structuralism 
Structuralism as a method is peculiarly imitable to literary criticism which is a discourse upon a discourse discourse. Literary criticism in that it is meta-linguistic in character  and comes into being/ existence as meta-literature, that is to say , 'a literature of which literature is the imposed object'. That is , it is literature written to explain literature and language used in it to explain the role of language in literature. 

In Genette's words, ' if the writer quotations the universe, the critic quotations literature, that is to say, the universe of signs. 

Gerard Genette writes at the outset in his essay "Structuralism and Literary criticism" that methodes developed for the study of one discipline could be satisfactorily applied to the study of other discipline as well. This is what he calls "intellectual bricolage", borrowing a term form Claude Levi-Strauss. This is precisely so, so far as structuralism is concerned. 

  • Important concepts in Genette's narratology  
Genette's narratology is derived from Narrative Discourse; An Essay in Method. Below are the five main concepts used by Genette in Narrative Discourse; An Essay in Method. They are primarily used to look at the syntax of narratives, rather than to perform an interpretation of them. 

  1. Order :
 Say a story is as follows;
 Event 1. a murder occurs; 
 Event 2 . then the circumstances of the murder are reveals to a detective, 
Event 3.  Finally the murderer is caught.

Arranged chronologically the events run. Arranged in the text they may run discovery, flashback and resolution. 



I try to apply these type of narrative discourse in TV serials. Generally we can see that C.I.D , dedective didi or Savdhan India TV serials following above three type of chronological events. C.I.D or Savdhan India began with the discovery of murder or any crime then event go to the flashback that what and how its happens then resolution. But some time this proceese of narrative is changed some time its began with flashback than the discovery.  This accounts for the ' obvious' effects the reader will recognise, such as flashback. It also deals with the structure of narratives on a more systematic basis.

The Black Cat : By Edger Allan Poe 

In this story we can see that above three type of chronological events. The narrator killed his wife and his beloved cat. The police discover the murderer and the end of the story murderer reviled. So we can apply this three type of narrative discourse in this story.

2. Frequency 

The separation between an event and its narration allows several possibilities. An event can be occured once and narrated once. An events can be occured once and be narrated many times.

3. Duration 

The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative time.These are the two main elements of duration. First is ten years passed but a short narrative time it mean they narrated in few seconds.


For example Khoob Ladi Mardaani - Jhansi Ki Rani. This is Indian historical drama television series based on the life of Lakshmi Bai , The rani of jhansi. The story narrated many time left few years.

4. Voice 

Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where. This can be split four ways.

Where the narration is form

  • Intra-diegetic: inside the text.
  • Extra-diegetic : outside the text.
Is the narrator a character in the story?
  • Hetero-diegetic: The narrator is not a character in the story.

  • Homo-diegetic: The narrator is a character in the story.
for example from literary text :

1. Blow up with the ship

Blow up with ship is a short story by 19th century writer Wilkie Collins. It is a thriller story. We can see that the Homo-diegetic narration in this story. In these story narrator himself tells story and he is character in these story. The story is narrated in first person. The narrator was sent to sea when still a boy and became a mate at the of twenty five. The setting is sea during the year 1818.

2. The Black Cat 



The Black Cat is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator. The narrator tells story and he is also character in the story.

Example from movie :

Baahubali : The Beginning and Baahubali 2 The conclusion

Baahubali is a 2015 Indian epicaction film directed by S.S.Rajamouli. The film produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni. The first of two cinematic parts, the film follows sivdu, an adventurous young man who helps his love , a rebellious warrior intending to rescue the former queen of Mahishmati. In this process, he learns of his true identity as the heir to the throne of mahishmati, the son of Amarendra Baahubali, whoes tale is narrated to him by kattappa reveals that he was the one who killed him. The reason behind this is  explained in the Baahubali 2 : The conclusion. So we can say that the second part of Baahubali is narrated by Kattappa and he himself character in the movie. Kattappa relates this story to baahubali, but when asked about Amarendra baahubali current whereabouts, a tearful kattappa reveals that Amaendra baahubali is dead , and that he is the one who killed him.

5. Mood 

Genette said narrative mood is dependent on the distance and perspective of the narrator, and like music, narrative mood has predominant patterns. It is related to voice.

Genette concept of structuralism is different from other and his concept is most including all narrative techniques.


Thank you.....