Structuralism - Gerard Genette

Modern theories in Literature are very hard to understand. Structuralism is a theory which emphasis more on the  Structure of anything. Simply the word Structure refer to Order of Arrangement. For example...Solar system has one particular structure like Sun is at the center and other planets are revolving around the sun and also rotates on its own axis. Planet have continents, and In continents there are countries and Countries are divided into States and States in city. So this is the basic Structure of the Solar System. But you may say this is Scientific. So what about literature?

Structuralism in Literature

Of course Literature also consists some basic structure. If we go 1500 years back than Aristotle's Poetics provide Structure for Drama. Which is divided into three parts…Beginning, Middle or Climax or End. So this the basic structure of Drama. Similarly everything have some structure.

But, The term Structuralism came in existence around 1900s in Literature.

Generally Structuralist does study of Signs and language of literature. If you refer the definition of Structuralism in Penguin Dictionary….

“A movement of thought in Human sciences, wide-spread in Europe, which has affected a number of fields of knowledge and inquiry…”

Structuralist Strongly believed that….

"Nothing can exist in Isolation" There is a widespread common structure, which is followed by other and if someone tried to go beyond that framed structure and try to change the structure then Structuralist are more interested in it.

Before 1920 any work in Literature Considered as "Work" means physical object, connected with its author and we try to understand it by Using Cultural and Social elements in it so it is "Close Ended" But after 1920, a great change occurs in looking at the work, now the work of Art became text. The best example of it is Roland Barthes essay…"From work to text" In literary criticism we can notice a paradigm shift from work to text, which is looked at from different angles. Text accordance to Structuralist are "Linguistic Construct", which is "Open Ended" and readers are free to interpret it from various angles and corners. Text is free from any outer references as Roland Barthes says the 'Death of author', and readers can do any interpretation according to his or her understanding. So let's have look on Concept of Different scholars on Structuralism…

Ferdinand De Saussure

Ferdinand De Saussure who is considered as the Father of English Linguistic and you are also surprised to Know that he is a great scholar of Sanskrit also. He read the works of Bharatmuni, Panini and Patanjali and get the idea from that is 'What is Language' and different structure for it. Two main idea given by Saussure is that…

"Episteme-Unit of Knowledge is Construct of Language"

Means that we can't get any kind of knowledge without using the language. Language is at the center and we can't even think and learn without the language.

"Language follows a Structure"

Anything surrounded us made up with particular structure, so language can't be exceptional. Language also have particular structure. According to Saussure language is a system of sign constructed by convention or tradition. He give four kinds of theory…

• Sign=Signifier=Signified
• Langue and Parole
• Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic axes
• Diachrony and Synchrony

Saussure idea of Sign that language is a system of sign which signifies something through signifiers. When we listen the word Dog, So the word and the sound is signifier and what it signifies is the picture of Dog came in our mind. So signifier is word, spelling or sound and Signified is a mental concept which shapes in our mind related to that word. Signifier doesn't change but signified keeps on changing from person to person and place to place or in different contexts. 

For Ferdinand De Saussure signifier is more important because it doesn't change which is also can we see in Aristotle's poetics in the form of Logos and in Indian Poetics it considered as શબ્દબ્રહ્મ, means the word is a Brahma- the Supreme god according to Hindu cosmology. For example...In ancient time the word Awful is used for something which is beautiful but now the word means signifier remains the same but what it signified  is very bad or unpleasant, So signified keeps on changing in different context.

Saussure also said that Language is arbitrary because the meaning of word is conventional not natural. And also give concept of Binary Opposition, language is made from two different opposite words. If something is present than something is absent also and that's why we can say it is present.

Gerard Genette and Structuralistic Criticism

Structuralist critics study the structure of a work of art and try to connect with different literary genre and a work of art.  Structuralist criticism's main focus is to prepare science of literature by studying a different work and structure of that work.

Gerard Genette in his essay said that….

"One of the newest and most fruitful directions that are now opening up for literary research ought to be the structural study of the 'large unities' of discourse, beyond the framework-which linguistic in the strict sense cannot cross- of the sentence."

Gerard Genette said that the method which we can developed from the study of one process or discipline can also be applicable for end number of a process or discipline. And what he called is "Intellectual Bricolage" derived a term from Claude Levi-Straus. So literature is Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary.

Important concepts in Genette's narratology

Gerarad Genette In his book Narrative Discourse:An Essay in Method which is not actually written by him but it is written from the lectures taken taken by him. Where he give five concepts for narratology…

• Order
• Frequency
• Duration
• Voice
• Mood

Some Examples
Love Story

First take very very simple and hot favourite topic of cinema, t.v. serial or writers. Love stories are simply narrated as two people fall in Love with each other. They belong to different caste or class or Society as always stand as a wall between them and lovers choose the option to do sucide…. So this simple structure can be noticed in many plays or movies also…

Romeo and Juliet By Shakespeare

Ishaqzadde

Written and Directed by: Habib Faisal

Produced by: Aditya Chopra

Starring : Arjun Kapoor

                     Parineeti Chopara

                     Gauhar Khan

There were two families, the Chauhans and Quereshis both are enemies from many generations. There was Local election and both Parma and Zoya participated in Election as member and falls in love with each other. They run away from their home but threat of society is constant and they decide to sucide. They both shoot each other. The movie ends with the body on terrace showing that dozens of lovers are killing only because they love the person who is outside of their caste or religion.

Ram leela

Full name Goliyon ki Rasleela Ram-Leela is tragic Romance Film directed and written by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. There is a fictional village in Gujarat named Ranjaar. Rajadi and Sanera are two families which have been odds with each other from last 500 years.

Ram dare to enter in Sanera family and flirts with Leela. So both fell in love with each other. And the tragedy happen Kanjibhai the brother of Lea is accidently killed Meghji, Brother of Ram and in turn Kanji killed by Ram.

Both escape from their family and decide to marry but Ram's friend betray with him and trace their location and also informed about this to Leela's family, so they take her home. And the violence between both keeps on growing. At the end Ram-Leela decides to kill each other and leave in peace. After their death both families come together and cremated the body of lovers. So in this way The lover pay their life to get two families together.

So in this way this is the basic structure of love which is most of the time structured in a same plot..But the story and character are different.

Gender Bias-Double Standard

This is mainly the ad of Pantene(Shampoo). But with some creativity try to make change in society that woman is not as always what is labeled to her she is more than it. Language is Binary Opposition as Saussure pointed out, Man is considered as Superior and woman is Inferior. In the play of Shakespeare also quoted that "Woman thy name is Frailty." But his ads try to change the mentality of society and make a step ahead to change the established mindset. So we can say that this ad is about to make change in conventional structure of society. To destroy the labels which are labeled on woman as Inferior to man. This ad exposes gender bias. Both are doing the same behaviour but still they are labeled differently only because one is a woman and another is a man.

So when we study the words we came to know that how different language are use for Man and Woman. Like in every structure woman is always come lower position to man. This ad is also showing the structure of society which is also portryed in same structure in many other ads, movies or in texts also.

Man	Woman
Boss	Bossy
Persuasive	Pushy
Dedicated	Selfish
Neat	Pain
Smooth	Show off

This is combine video of many ads showing the changing position of a woman. How tv ads shows woman. So the importance of woman is chronologically going high, time to time so we can.say with passing of time there is also change is also changed in orthodox , typical thought of people and we can see the change in the structure of society.

• In very first ad for buying pressure cooker woman take help of her husband, she can't even make  conversation with a shopkeeper.
• After that woman is only for make a cup of tea for her husband, means only do household works.
• In the third ad woman showed as she is only for washing clothes and surprisingly she has 10 hands to wash clothes.
• But Thank God, Now Indian ad companies started change the woman presentation. In fourth ad woman denied to wash the clothes and said 'Is laundry only woman's job?'
• And Finally, women got freedom to speak to make fun with friends and also can buy scooter.

So this Video also shows the structure of a typical Indian society to changing Indian society.

 

This ad is not only about Ariel but the full is Ariel#Share the load. Now advertisers are also conscious to how to attract more people. So with every ad they try to make it very interesting by presenting some morals with it. Here is one ad which shows Gender Equality the question raised is that…

"Are we teaching our sons what we have been teaching our Daughter?"

This is the totally different ad which shows that Mother should take in a consideration that how she is raising her daughter as well as her Son. Both should have same upbringing so in future they can became good and equal partner.

So these are some of the ads which, i tried to read from structuralist approach by making multiple meanings of the same text or here we can say ad.

The Sky is Pink

Directed By: Shonali Bose

Starring: Priyanka Chopra Jonas

               (Aditi Chaudhary or Moose)

               Farhan Akhtar 

               (Niren Chaudhary or Panda)

               Zaira Wasim

               (Aaisha Chaudhary)

               Rohit Suresh Saraf

               (Ishan Chaudhary)

"The Sky is Pink" is a movie based on the true life story of Motivational speaker, writer and an artist Aaisha Chaudhary who died at the age of 18 because of her illness SIDC. This is a Love story told by Aaisha of her parents and their struggle after the birth of a girl child with a rare immune deficiency disorder. 

Aaisha's illness became the only reason for separation between their parents and also meeting after Death. Generally we see Death as the end of everything, like dark ages are going to be starts but here the Death also is meeting point for Aaisha's parents so the Sky is not as usual blue but Pink here. She became catalyst agent between both who remain uninvolved in the end result. So let's try to  analyse this movie on the basis of Narratology given by Gerard Genette…

"These concepts are primarily used to look at the syntax of narrative, rather than to perform an interpretation of them." 

Order

Order means the arrangement of events. Events happen chronologically but it may be narrated in different order. 

So here movie opens with current situation that Adhiti Chaudhary is very sad and alone by the Death of her Daughter, and missing her. And the Death of Aaisha Chaudhary is already narrated by her that…

"Mere dadu thoda overreact kar gaye,

100 sal ji leti to Kahaani kaise sunati…

Mera The End ho chuka hai."

And after that whole story smoothly moves in Flashback. So first here is anachrony of situation and then there is  event B in flashback what happens and then Death and again movie ends with current situation which is better than the past and even Death adds life in the story.

Frequency

The term frequency refers to separation between the event and its narration. 

So in Current movie the death of Aaisha Chaudhary happens only single time and ofcou4 death of someone can't happen more than one.  But the point is throughout story it mentioned several times. Like all knows that she is going to die one day.

Duration

Duration emphasis on the separation between discourse time and narration time. 

"The Sky is Pink" is based on a true story, so almost 18 years passed of the death of Aaisha Chaudhary and 25 years of their parents marriage. So these long journey of her life is narrated in only two and half hour so the lengthy discourse time is narrated in very short time.

Voice

Voice is concerned with who narrates and from where the story is narrated. So The following story is narrated by character who is dead. So the story is narrated from grave but the character is also a part of that particular text. Aaisha Chaudhary herself narrated her story as part of text and character of text so the text is intra diegetic and Homo-Diegetic.

Mood

Genette said that mood depends on the distance and perspective of the narrator.

Here, Narrator is far from her parents, she is already died so she can Notice the whole chaos and events happening in and around and narrated it with the humorous tone make audience to laugh. The narrator of movie is now eternal person so she can discussed any serious topic like sex life of their parents and more. Perspective of the narrator in the movie is very positive and optimistic. She is not on the side of her mother or father but both are equal for her.

So this is how The movie "The Sky is Pink" is presented with different perspectives. To bring freshness and novelty in it, narrated by died female character with her highly energetic and humorous tone.

Thank you.....