Structuralism
Study
by aangfatihulislam upjb
IMPORTANT NOTE:
STRUCTURAL STUDIES ARE DIFFERENT FROM STRUCTURALISM STUDIES
STRUCTURAL STUDY: STUDY OF STRUCTURE, REGARDING CHARACTERS AND
CHARACTERIZATION, PLOT, THEME, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TITLE AND
CONTENT, ETC
Structuralism studies are different, as seen below
1) Important figures of Structuralism:
· Claude Levi-Strauss (anthropology)
· Roland Barthes (Literature studies)
· Michel Foucault (History field of study)
· Jacques Lacan (field of study Psychiatry)
2) The meaning of "structure" in Structuralism:
3) Every thing/object must have a structure. Objects/objects can be concrete, they can also be
abstract. The size of one object and another similar object may be different, however, in essence, the
structure of similar objects remains the same, for example:
The structure of the house door everywhere is the same
· The structure of the human body is the same everywhere
· The structure of glasses is the same everywhere
· The structure of mythology/legends/folk tales and other similar things with the same themes is the
same everywhere
4). Important figures who influenced Structuralism, among others,
Ferdinand de Saussure. In language, according to Ferdinand de Saussure, there are:
Langue: “the conventions and rules that outline and organize a language, say, for example,
grammar.”
Parole: “individual pronunciations in a language/a single phrase or sentence.”
Carl Gustav Jung: humans are bound by a shared unconscious (collective unconsciousness)
5). =For structuralists, the novel as a genre can be considered langue, and a novel (for example a
Dostoevsky novel) can be considered parole
= Mythology/legend/folklore and other similar genres can be considered langue, and
mythology/legend/folklore and other similar things can be considered parole
= A mythology/legend/folk tale and other similar things with the same/similar theme must have the
same/similar structure, for example Oedipus in the West and Sangkuriang in Indonesia
5) Structural instincts: collective unconsciousness the author
encourages the author to unconsciously write langue and/or
parole with the same/similar structure, and therefore the
same/similar to each other, for example:
Ancient Greek mythology is the same/similar to the Mahabharata
· Oedipus is the same/similar to Sangkuriang
· Themes, ways of filming, figures and characterization of
Indonesian women from the 2000s until the beginning of the
2000s are the same/similar (Ayu Utami, Djenar Maesa Ayu, Dinar
Rahayu, and others). In their works there are sexual problems ,
the depiction is blatant, there is also a lesbi/homo problem
7). Contoh dari Oedipus Rex:
Cadmos is looking for his Spartons kill each other Cadmos kills the dragon Labdacos is paralyzed
sister, Europa
Oedipus married his Oedipus kills Laius Oedipus killed the Sphinx Laius had to only move
mother his left hand
Eteocles killed his brother
Antigone buries her Polynices Oedipus-his feet are
brother, Polynices swollen
Examples of two American Indian folk tales (two tribes of Indians, the language of each tribe is different, the
residence of one tribe and the other is very far away):
The tribe leader's daughter fell in love The chief's son was friendly with another person (they were later
considered two heroes)
When she should have spoken, this girl was silent When he should have been silent, this boy spoke
The result: he suffered and died As a result: they fight and kill
The village people left their hero to live far away The two heroes leave the villagers to live far away
At one point the hero had to go farther than usual to kill his quarry At one point the two heroes were ready to go further than usual, and
were killed
The hero returns through the village and sees the spirit of his The heroes return to their villages and are invisible/unseen
heroine
To bring his heroine back to life, the hero must undergo a four-night To bring themselves back to life they had to undergo the test four
trial at the place where he sees his heroine's spirit nights four times in four different places
The test is in the form of endurance to get rid of aggressive demons, The test is in the form of resistance to the temptation to be friends
not in human form, and whose appearance and behavior are with demons who are friendly, have human form and attractive
challenging appearance and behavior.
The hero succeeds, the tribe leader's daughter comes back to life, The two heroes succeed and return to their village
the village people come back to life
The two heroes (the hero and his wife) give birth to a child Both heroes are reborn and become children
Even though the two heroes managed to survive, they did not Both heroes were able to come back to life (the chief's son
succeed in living on, and eventually became wolf spirits, functioning succeeded especially because he fasted a lot)
as protectors of the fasting population.
Please Answer:
• What collective unconscious do Westerners and Indonesian/Sundanese
share, and therefore Oedipus in the West and Sangkuriang in
Indonesia/Sundanese are the same/similar?
• What collective unconsciousness do Ayu Utami, Djenar Maesa Ayu, Dinar
Rahayu, and others have, and is their work therefore the same/similar?
What collective unconscious did two American Indian tribes with different
languages and geographical distances share?
• What collective unconsciousness did the Indonesian people have in May
1998, and because of that, actions arose simultaneously to carry out the
1998 Reformation?
THANK YOU
