Hi! Can anyone explain structuralism to me in simplicity?
Um... maybe.
Structuralism posits a wide separation between the signifier (a word) and the signified (the actual thing the word refers to). IOW, words can't reliably be expected to mean exactly what we want. Or something. So structualism focuses on the relationships between varous signifiers, and focuses much less on on what the signifier-signified relationship.
Post-structuralism is similar, but also focuses on how the relationship between signifiers changes over time.
OK, I bet I'm forgetting lots of stuff here. It's been years and years since I've read such theory... so hopefully someone who knows more what they're talking about can step in....
Good lord, Sophia! You and Sue should have traded off bell-ringing. But... your neighbor called the cops because your door was open? That's bizarre.
My prescription has barely changed in 3 years. Yay. And they did a test where I wore an eyepatch. I refrained from pirate jokes (and thought of tommyrot).
Yay! May all Buffistas think of me when confronted with strange eye-examination technology....
Thanks tommy. That helps; I was reading about it in a paper on medievalism and feminism, and while I've worked with constructivism before, I'd never encountered structuralism.
Well, my door was open and my cat was in the hallway meowing. Which I heard, but I just thought he was being annoying. I wish I'd gone to find him, because perhaps I would have avoided this. And now I have a bonus of extra awakeness! I am not necessarily asleep by this time, but I am usually in bed dozing.
Also, I am now wearing pants!
Yikes Sophia! That is why I tend not to answer my door.
I rarely answer my door, but the cop was actually in my apartment (my door is at the bottom of the stairway) and, like shining a light up onto me!
I know post-structuralism often focuses on the way language is used to control/oppress people, acquire/maintain power, etc (Foucault especially wrote a lot about this). I don't remember if structuralism is similar in this respect.
Oh, Foucault. Even his name tires me.
OK, I was off a little on the meaning of "signifier"
signifier (the sound pattern of a word, either in mental projection - as when we silently recite lines from a poem to ourselves - or in actual, physical realization as part of a speech act)
...so, not the same as the "word."
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I found Foucault difficult, but rewarding when I struggled through a book.
