E. Discussion of Critical Approaches: Structuralist

The principle of structuralism stems from the attempt to find the relationship and connection among elements that appear to be separate and discrete. lust ~s physical science reveals unifying universal principles of matter such as gravity and the forces of electromagnetism (and is constantly searching for a "unified field theory"), structuralism attempts to discover the forms unifying all literature's. Thus a structural description of Maupassant's "The Necklace" would stress that the main character, Mathilde, is an active protagonist who undergoes a test (or series of tests) and emerges with a victory, though not the kind she had originally hoped for. The same might be said of Phoenix in Welty's "A Worn Path." If this same kind of structural view is applied to Bierce's” An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the protagonist would emerge in defeat. Generally, the structural approach applies such patterns to other works of literature to determine that some protagonists are active or submissive, that they pass or fail their tests, or that they succeed or fail at other encounters. The key is that many apparently unrelated works reveal many common patterns or contain similar structures with important variations.
The structural approach has become important because it enables critics to discuss works from widely separate cultures and historical periods. In this respect, critics have followed the leads of modem anthropologists most notably Claude Levi-Strauss (b. 1908). Along such lines, critics have undertaken the serious examination of folk tales and fairy tales. Some of the groundbreaking structuralist criticism, for example, was devoted to the structural principles underlying Russian folk tales. The method also bridges popular and serious literature, making little distinction between the two insofar as the description of the structures is concerned. Indeed, structuralism furnishes an ideal approach for comparative literature, and the method also enables critics to consolidate genres such as modem romances, detective tales, soap operas, and films.

Categories: Discussion of Critical Approaches