Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

Structuralism and post-structuralism are the most theoretically demanding approaches you will encounter at A-Level. They ask fundamental questions about how language produces meaning — and whether meaning can ever be stable, fixed, or certain. These ideas are challenging but immensely rewarding: once you grasp them, you will read literature differently.

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Structuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913)

Saussure, a Swiss linguist, is the founding figure of structuralism. His key insight was that language is a system of signs, and that meaning is produced not by the relationship between words and things but by the relationship between signs within the system.

Key Concept	Definition	Example
The sign	A unit of meaning, consisting of a signifier (the word/sound) and a signified (the concept it refers to)	The word "tree" (signifier) refers to the concept of a tree (signified)
Arbitrary relationship	The connection between signifier and signified is arbitrary — there is no natural reason why the sound "tree" should mean what it means	Different languages use different signifiers for the same signified: "tree" (English), "arbre" (French), "Baum" (German)
Difference	Meaning is produced by difference — we understand what a word means by understanding what it does NOT mean	"Hot" means what it means because it is NOT "cold," "warm," "lukewarm," etc.
Langue and parole	Langue = the underlying system of rules; parole = individual speech acts	Grammar (langue) vs. a specific sentence (parole)

Binary Oppositions

Structuralists argued that meaning is structured through binary oppositions — pairs of opposed terms that organise our understanding:

Binary Opposition	Cultural Significance
Nature / Culture	Fundamental structuralist opposition — what is "natural" vs. what is socially constructed
Male / Female	Gender as a structuring opposition
Self / Other	Identity defined by what it excludes
Civilised / Savage	Colonial ideology structured through this opposition
Light / Dark	Moral, racial, and psychological connotations
Speech / Writing	Derrida's deconstruction begins here (see below)

Application: In Othello, the binary opposition Black/White structures the entire play. Othello's tragedy is his inability to escape the binary: he is defined as "other" by a society that structures identity through racial opposition. Iago exploits this binary relentlessly: "an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe."

Claude Lévi-Strauss: Myth and Structure

Lévi-Strauss applied Saussure's structural linguistics to mythology and culture. He argued that myths across different cultures share deep structures — binary oppositions that reflect universal patterns of human thought.

Application: The opposition between "civilisation" and "nature" in The Handmaid's Tale can be read structurally. Gilead presents itself as "civilisation" — ordered, moral, godly — in opposition to the "chaos" of the pre-Gilead world. Atwood deconstructs this opposition: Gilead's "civilisation" is barbaric; the "chaos" it replaced was, in fact, freedom.

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Post-Structuralism

Post-structuralism does not reject structuralism but radicalises it. If meaning depends on difference (as Saussure argued), then meaning is never fully present — it is always deferred, always slipping away. This insight has revolutionary implications for how we read literature.

Roland Barthes: The Death of the Author (1967)

The Key Argument: Barthes argued that the meaning of a text is not determined by the author's intention. Once a text is written, the author is "dead" — the text belongs to the reader, who produces its meaning through the act of reading.

Traditional view	Barthes's view
The author is the source of meaning	The text is a "tissue of quotations" — a network of cultural references that the reader activates
Reading = discovering what the author "meant"	Reading = producing meaning through interpretation
One correct interpretation	Multiple, potentially infinite interpretations
The author's biography is relevant	The author's biography is irrelevant — what matters is the text and the reader

Application: If we follow Barthes, we should not ask "What did Atwood mean by The Handmaid's Tale?" but rather "What meanings does The Handmaid's Tale produce when we read it?" This is liberating: it authorises multiple readings (feminist, Marxist, post-colonial, psychoanalytic) without requiring any single reading to be "correct."

A-Level Caution: Barthes's essay does not mean "anything goes." The text constrains interpretation — not all readings are equally valid. But it does mean that the author's stated intention is not the final word.

Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction