1. Structuralism:
Building the Infrastructure of
Narrative

2. Structuralism
Analysis of the large, encompassing structures
of all narratives rather than on individual
works of narrative. Structuralism “proposes a
theory of the structure and operation of the
literary discourse”, such as the overall
“grammar” of narratives and conventions of
specific genres.

3. Ferdinand de Saussure
Study of semiology
•Distinguishes between langue and parole
– langue = the structure or grammar of a
language
– parole = individual instances of language use

4. For Saussure language is . . .
1. arbitrary (no inherent meaning in words)
2. relational (meaning exists only in relation
to other words)
3. constitutive (language attributes or creates
meaning; meaning does not inhere in the
thing itself)

5. Tzvetan Todorov (1938)
• Born in Bulgaria,
moved to Paris as
young man
• Student of Barthes

6. Todorov
• Followed work by Vladimir Propp on
identifying plot elements of folk tales.
• Worked with The Decameron to discern
basic structural elements of individual
stories.

7. Roland Barthes
1915-1980
• Raised without a
father; close to
mother, tubercular,
highly regarded
scholar and prolific,
iconoclastic author
• Began as a Structuralist
→Poststructuralist &
Reader Response

8. Barthes
Anti-authoritarian, always looking for ways
that institutions, systems, social usages of
language seek to control us.

9. Barthes’ Marxist Agenda
• Examines social forces at work in
perpetuating authority of authors as the
“epitome of capitalist ideology” (1322)
• Sees “author” as a social “mythology” to
be uncovered

10. Barthes’ Central Concern
“His writings attempt to show us that . . .
the meanings that seem natural to us are
cultural products, the results of cultural
frameworks that are so familiar as to pass
unnoticed.”
Ironically, Barthes’ reversals of his ideas served as
a demonstration of his belief that meanings
that seem natural to us are cultural products,
not essential and eternal truths.

11. Intertextuality
Intertextuality includes quotation,
allusion, echo, parody, revision, genre
conventions. At its limits, all language
is intertextual.
“Every text builds itself as a mosaic of
quotations, every text is an absorption
and transformation of another text. ”
Julia Kristeva
Every text is an intertext, “the text-

12. “Death of an Author” (1968)
– Author role is historical. Authors and authorship
have been romanticized.
– All texts, genres, conventions are radically
intertextual.
– One can no longer look for textual unity,
coherence, single, deterministic meaning.
– Authors don’t control how a text is read and
interpreted. Readers do

13. Textual Authority
Historical shift from auctor (scribe,
performer) to Author. Beginning about 15th
C. author gained increasing prestige as
inventor or genius. For Barthes, Author
loses authority and returns to role of
scriptor.

14. “We know now that a text is not a line of
words releasing a single ‘theological’
meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God)
but a multidimensional space in which a
variety of writings, none of them original,
blend and clash.”

15. Role of the Text
Given radical intertextuality of all writing
and recognition of unwarranted privileging
of author, what is left is a text being
“eternally rewritten here and now” by a
reader.
The death (“removal”) of the Author . . .
Leads to birth of the reader.

16. Role of the Reader
Words & texts have meaning only in terms of
conventions & habits of reading (by readers
who know codes/conventions). Reader
becomes central figure as producer of the
text.
“The ‘I’ that approaches the text is itself already
a plurality of other texts, of codes which are
infinite or . . . lost (whose origin is lost).
“The reader is the space on which all the
quotations that make up a writing are
inscribed . . . a texts’ unity lies not in its origin
but its destination.”

17. Writers write . . .
• in rich and active social and historical milieu,
• with memory & influence of other authors,
• and genres, conventions, syntax, grammar,
vocabulary available to work with.

18. Impact of Structuralism
• Demystifies or de-consecrate literature and
the authority of authors
• Celebrates intertextuality
• Privileges readers over authors