Structuralism

by John Sturrock, Jean-Michel Rabaté (Introduction)

John Sturrock's classic explication of Structuralism represents the most succinct and balanced survey available of a major critical movement associated with the thought of such key figures as Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Barthes, Lacan and Althusser theory.

A classic work in literary and cultural theory.

Reissued to coincide with calls for a return to structuralism.

Includes a new introduction by Jean-Michel Rabate, which explores developments in the reception of structuralist theory in the past five to ten years.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology, Semiotics

177 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Anning Leng Sturrock was an English writer, editor, reviewer and translator who was closely associated with the Times Literary Supplement and later the London Review of Books.

Reviews

[Rahul Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an ACADEMIC TEXT. Certainly, it was an insightful read on the philosophical ideology of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. John Sturrock's language and mode of argumentation made the complex understanding of these two ideologies seemingly simple. I liked how persuasively he presented the Structuralist ideas and then the Post-Structuralists contribution to make the former more critical and comprehensive in its approach.

[Judy]

"The founding father of structural linguistics in Europe and the more frequently looked on the patron of the whole Structuralist movement, was the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure." p. 3
"A language may be studies along two lines, one temporal and the other, in a manner of speaking spatial. These two axes Saussure named the diachronic and the synchronic. The diachronic linguist studies a language as it changes through time, while a synchronic linguist studies it statically, in its given state at a particular moment of time." p. 5
"....another of Saussure's cardinal distinctions must be brought in: that between langue and parole, or as they are usually called 'language' and 'speech'......If langue is a structure than parole is an event. The first is an abstraction, the second is real." p. 9
"Semiotics....concerns itself with signs such as those of which a language consists in so far as these belong to a system: with how they mean rather than what they mean. Semiotics may thus be contrasted with semantics, which concerns itself the 'signification' of signs or the use we make of them to refer." p. 22
"Just as the phenomenologist is as interested in the structure of imagining as in that of perceiving, so the structural linguist can proceed without ever asking himself which linguistic structures are used to say true things about the world and which to say untrue or wrong things." p 37
"As English speakers, we may lose sight of the distinction between history as what has been recorded of or written about the past and the past itself, taken as what actually occurred, because the word 'history' generally covers both." p. 57
{historiography is the writing of history.}
"It is one of the benefits of Structuralism to have made us more acutely aware of how hindsight infects historiography and to suggest ways in which it may be partially offset." p. 58 "In general, this can be done by paying less attention to chronology and less attention to the singular and exceptional deeds of individuals. The style of historiography to which Structuralism is opposed is widely known by its French name of 'l'histoire événtielle' or 'event history.' 'Event history is essentially the past atomized into the resounding exploits of Great Men and Great Institutions." p. 58-59
"It is part of the claim of Semiotics that the more competent we are at the reading of the infinitely many signs around us in daily life, the more alertly and intelligently we will live." p. 75

[Amelia Frear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll read this again when I’m more familiar with the topics and myriad authors discussed, and will likely understand it better. Structurally (ha) and overall, this was an interesting introduction to structuralism. In form, however, it was verbose to the point of over complicating things. Usually I think it understandable that academic texts, and/or older texts, have a more wordy and dense form which readers simply need to do their best to process. This was genuinely unnecessary, though - if I can explain ‘death of the author’ in a few sentences, I hardly think Sturrock needs three pages. Quick reminder to academics that the purpose of their work is communication not elitism ;)

[Yorick Calvino · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good exposition of structuralism and its applications in linguistics, semiotics, sociology, literature, and a little bit of psychoanalysis and history. The 2004 edition has a chapter about post-structuralism.
Overall an interesting read that is not too difficult.
The main downside was the writing, which was awkward at times.
The introduction, unnecessarily jargony, was not very helpful at all and could be skipped without losing anything significant.

[Steve]

Hayden White, "Michel Foucault", John Sturrock (ed.), Structuralism and the Self, Oxford, 1979