5 Critical Approaches to Literature
Structuralist- Is a theory of a human kind thought to be parts of a system of signs. It is described as a reaction to “modernist” alteration and despair. It is heavily influenced by linguistics especially by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure. Useful was Saussure’s concept of phoneme which is the smallest basic speech sound or unit of pronunciation, the idea that phoneme exists in two kinds of relationships (diachronic and synchronic). Diachronic is a “horizontal” relationship with the other phonemes that precede and follow it in a particular usage, ulterance, or narrative. Synchronic is a “vertical” relationship with the entire system of language within which individual usages, ulterances, or narratives have meaning. Mythemes are also part of structuralism, which are myths broken into the smallest meaningful units. Most structuralists followed Saussure’s methods of overriding langue (tongue/language), or language of myth in which each......
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