STRUCTURALISM

     This intellectual movement began in France. Two important philosophers emerged with Structuralism, who are Claude Levi Strauss, and Roland Barthes. The basic aim of the Structuralism is to show that everything relates to one another, because they cannot be understood in isolation. They love to be observe in the context of larger structures. These structures imposes our way of perceiving world. These structures are not objective, and they are constructed by our way of perceiving the world. They want to move from the particular to the general.
       Structure has a great importance than the text itself, because structure is taking you further away from the text into more abstract world. Therefore; you move away from the text, by analyzing its relation to other structures. Structuralism is about understanding concepts through understanding the other concept. According to Structuralism; language is a system of signs, and each sign is composed of signifier and signified. Signifier is the sound image, and signified is the concept. Every word is composed of signifier and signified, and they are like the two sides of the same paper, so they can never be separated. The meaning is achieved through difference between signifiers. The meaning is an endless play of signifiers. The meaning is always deferred, and it is impossible to arrive at a final signified. Moreover; Structuralism is comparative. They understand everything by seeing its difference from something else. Every sign can be detached through its relation to other sign. Everything is linguisticly constructed, and all the words are compound of signs.