Structuralism

Tzvetan Todorov’s

‘Structural Analysis of Narrative’

q Application of this theory

1)    Fairy Tale Stories

2)    Life Cycle of Human beings and Plants.

Background

Structuralism as critical approach originated with revolutionary ideas of the Swiss linguistic Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). He uses the word ‘structure’ in a very innovative way. Structuralist critics do not use the word structure to mean a building or a construction.

Definition- Structuralism refers to a set of interrelations between invisible principles and the visible form of those principles within a system.

Structuralism proposes that every system has two levels-

1)     Surface structure is a physical and observable, and can be observed in a number of human activities, behaviors and objects.

2)     Deep structure is a set of principles that lies below the surface structure. It is abstract and invisible.

Example- Language is an example of a system where we can observe such levels of structural organization. Language consists of millions of words and is its surface structure. But the use of these words use by speakers in different situations and in specific patterns constitutes its deep structure.

Saussure defined language  as a system of signs. Sign is the key term he used in his analysis. It consists of two aspects: signifier and signified. He defined signifier as a sound image and signified as a concept. We may call signifier ‘word’ and signified ‘meaning’ for our convenience. Word (signifier) and meaning (signified) depend on each other and work in association.

Tzvetan Todorov (1939-2017) was a Bulgarian critic who lives in France. He has sought to develop poetics as the framework which can work as the ‘science of literature’. In his early works like Introduction to poetics (1968), The Poetics of Prose (1971) and Genres in Discourse (1978) , he tried to study literature into two broad categories: Poetics and Interpretation

Todorov explains the basic assumption of the structuralist approach in this essay and demonstrates its application to literary texts. He regards the structuralist approach to be objective  and general in the application, like science, and therefore he discards the individuality specificity and meaning of literary works. In order to explain how the interpretation of literature can take place with scientific principles, Todorov takes the plot to be the principal abstract.  He analyses the narrative organization of four different stories from the famous Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, on the basis of the commonality of plot as the abstract structures.

ü  A monk introduces a young girl into his cell and make love to her. The abbot detects this misbehavior and plans to punish him severely. But the monk learns of the abbot’s discovery and lays a trap for him by leaving his cell. The abbot goes in and succumbs to the charms of the girl, while the monk tries his turn at watching. At the end when the abbot intends to punish him, the monk points out that he has just committed the same sin. Result: the monk is not punished

ü  Perronnella receives her lover while her husband, a poor mason, is absent. But one day he comes in, she tells him that somebody wanted to buy the cask and that this somebody is now in the process of examining it. The husband believes her and is delighted with the sale. The lover pays and leaves with the cask

He uses the schematic formulation to express the commonalities elements of the four plots. It is based on the model of the sentence as consisting of subject, predicate and adjective.

1)     As per Todorov’s formulation  X and Y in the stories are proper nouns that serve as the subject or object of the clause.

2)     Verbs like ‘violate’, ‘punish’ and ‘avoid’ work as predicates. They denote an action that modifies an earlier situation.

3)     The analysis of other stories would show the other part of the narrative speech- adjective. It corresponds to a quality, which does not change a situation.

4)     He refers to other categories of the abstract structure of the stories like modality (how the action would take place), point of view (how the action is perceived), casual relations between clauses and sequences (it is the impression that the story is complete and it is caused by repetition of the initial cause- punishment).

5)     He points to three other categories that can be help reveal the commonalities of the selected narrative- a) study of narrative syntax, b) study of theme and c) study of rhetoric.

The structuralist analysis does not aim to understand the work or its meaning but only its abstract structure.

By the end of his essay, Todorov presents the result of his analysis. It is that the plot of the stories moves from an equilibrium (equal balance of mind between two conflicting motives. Here it means a balanced, calm and a stable situation to disequilibrium and concludes with a new equilibrium. The story begins with a state of equilibrium which is broken by a violation of the established law. The disturbed equilibrium can be restored by punishment but it is avoided this avoidance creates a new equilibrium in the story. Todorov ends his analysis with the reassertion that an abstract literary structure can help us better understand the universe that literary works create.

The genre of fairy tale as an example (Cindrella)

1. The antagonist  harms a member of the family or a member of the family lacks or desires something.

 "They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes… There she had to do hard work from morning until evening, get up before daybreak, carry water, make the fires, cook, and wash. Besides this, the sisters did everything imaginable to hurt her." (Cinderella).The victim here is Cinderella and the antagonists are her stepsisters who took advantage of her and harmed her. Then we see that she desires something, she desires to go to the ball proclaimed by the king. "Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited, so that his son could select a bride for himself." (Cinderella) Cinderella wanted to go so badly but she wasn't allowed.

2. This lack or misfortune is made known; the protagonist  is given a request or a command, and she goes or is sent on a mission/quest.

 The misfortune is her desire to go to the festival along with all the girls that are invited but she was not allowed. "Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to let her go." (Cinderella) Her mission was to finish picking the lentils and ash that her stepmother scattered, in two hours, and then she can go to the festival.

3. The protagonist is tested, attacked, interrogated, and receives either a magical agent or a helper.

 When Cinderella did everything that her stepmother asked her to do, she still wouldn't let her go with them to the festival. "But the stepmother said, 'it's no use. You are not coming with us, for you have no clothes, and you don't know how to dance. We would be ashamed of you.'" (Cinderella) She was interrogated by her stepmother.  She then receives a magical agent.

4. The protagonist uses the magical agent.

 Then she uses the help she gets from a magical agent, "Cinderella went to her mother's grave beneath the hazel tree, and cried out: shake and quiver, little tree, throw gold and silver down to me." (Cinderella) With that, she was given a dress and slippers to wear and go to the festival.

5. The protagonist is transferred to the general location of the object of his mission/quest.

 "She quickly put on the dress and went to the festival."  (Cinderella) She goes to the festival on a mission to win the prince's heart.

6. The protagonist and the antagonist join in direct combat.

 At the festival, she comes in direct combat with the antagonists who are her stepmother and her stepsisters and she wasn't recognized, "they thought she must be a foreign princess, for she looked so beautiful in the golden dress. They never once thought it was Cinderella, for they thought that she was sitting at home in the dirt, looking for lentils in the ashes." (Cinderella)

7. The antagonist is defeated.

 The stepsisters are defeated when the prince first sees Cinderella and falls in love with her. "The prince approached her, took her by the hand, and danced with her. Furthermore, he would dance with no one else. He never let go of her hand, and whenever anyone else came and asked her to dance, he would say, 'she is my partner.'" (Cinderella)

 8. The initial misfortune or lack is set right.

Cinderella's misfortunes are set right when the prince falls for her. She went to the festival the next day, everyone envied her beauty and the prince had waited for her, "(he) immediately took her by the hand, and danced only with her." (Cinderella)

9. The protagonist returns home.

 10. The protagonist is pursued.

 Cinderella wants to return home but the prince follows her.  "She wanted to leave, and the prince followed her, wanting to see into which house she went. But she ran away from him and into the garden behind the house." (Cinderella) Even the next day when she was about to leave, the prince wanted to leave with her but, "she ran away from him so quickly that he could not follow her. The prince however, had set a trap. He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch. When she ran down the stairs, her left slipper stuck in the pitch. The prince picked it up." (Cinderella)

11. The protagonist arrives home or elsewhere and is not recognized.

 Cinderella goes back home but no one recognizes her as the girl who danced with the prince. "No one shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe." (Cinderella)

12. A false protagonist makes false claims.

 Both of the ugly stepsisters claim that they are the girl he danced with. They try the shoe on and it does not fit, so, "the girl cut off her toe, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince," and the other sister, "cut a piece off her heel, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince." (Cinderella) After that, the prince notices that both of the sisters lied and posed as the girl he danced with, "this is not the right one either." (Cinderella)

13. A difficult task is set for the protagonist.

 Here the prince can also be seen as the protagonist. He is faced with a difficult task of trying to find his true princess, "(he) insisted on it, and they had to call Cinderella," (Cinderella) when they told him she cannot possibly be the girl he's looking for.

14. The task is accomplished.

 He finally found his princess so the task is accomplished. He put on the slipper on Cinderella and it fit her, "she sat down on a stool, pulled her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and put it into the slipper, and it fitted her perfectly." (Cinderella)

15. The protagonist is recognized.

 When the prince finally recognizes her as his princess, "when she stood up the prince looked into her face, and he recognized the beautiful girl who had danced with him. He cried out, 'she is my true bride.'" (Cinderella)

16. The false protagonist/antagonist is exposed.

 The stepsisters were exposed when the prince noticed that the shoe did not fit them perfectly and their jealousy when he realized that Cinderella was the one, "the stepmother and the two sisters were horrified and turned pale with anger." (Cinderella)

17. The antagonist is punished.

 The stepsisters were punished during the wedding day, "when the bridal couple walked into the church, the older sister walked on their right side and the younger on their left side, and the pigeons pecked out one eye from each of them. Afterwards, as they came out of the church, the older one was on the left side, and the younger one on the right side, and then the pigeons pecked out the other eye from each of them. And thus, of their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived." (Cinderella)

 18. The protagonist is married and crowned.

When the shoe perfectly fit Cinderella, the prince said, "she is my true bride" (Cinderella) and they got married and she was crowned as the princess.

Life cycle of human beings and plants. ü There is similar structure between these two cycles. ü Just as people change over a period of time, so do plants

.

1. There are certain stages of the growth and progress of a baby

2. A person continues to grow (height) till the age of eighteen and after 18 years only weight increases

3. After forty years of age, a person approaches old age(loses eye sight,weak,fall of teeths, gray hairs,baldness

4. Die

1.Starting from the germination in the soil, there are definite stages of the growth of the plants.

 2. Plants also grow in height and strength

3. It is attacked by the pests. Thus the tree trunk breaks and falls down

4.Plants/trees come to an end eventually