Thinking activity : structuralism

Thinking activity : structuralism and literary criticism

   Gérard Genette (born 1930) is a French literary theorist, associated in particular with the structuralist movement .His best known in English through the section , " Narrative Discourse  : An essay on method. "

  In literary theory, structuralism is an approach to analysing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure. For example, a literary critic applying a structuralist literary theory might say that the authors of West Side Story did not write anything "really" new, because their work has the same structure as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
common structure which can found every literary forms.

1) Language , Langue , Parole
2) Sign , Signifier , Signified
3) Diachronic vs Synchronic

1) Being a structuralist critic, how would you analyse literary text or TV serial or Film? You can select any image or TV serial or film or literary text or advertisement. Apply structuralist method and post your write up on your blog. Give link of that blog-post in the comment section under this blog.



    In  T.v serial , most of Ekta kapoor 's serials have same stereotypes or structure , all have same basic content of relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in -law , their conflicts , dilemma , unity of family and struggle with outwards element. Same formula in all serials.

  Example :        Colors serial  “ SWARAGINI”        with theme of love , conflicts between all relationship , love as strong element and struggle of character to get their immortal love in their serials.  in
This serial religion make a vital roll. Both are belonging to different religion Bengali and Hindu family. So conflict for acceptance.

 I found here the similar structure in the movies :

1) suspense
2) Thriller
3) love , and conflict


In the film”  HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM”   we can  find the same story formula that boy and girl love each other  but girl's family have objection with their love and at the end resolution. Other example is HIROPANTI.

In film” SPECIAL 26” it is a thriller movie directed by Neeraj Pandey and produced by Kumar Margat and Shital Bhatia. It is must watch movie for everyone with decent comedy and an ultimate twist at the end. It is engages the audience till the end.it is a mixture of suspense and thriller. This movie based on 1987 Opera house heist where a group of posing as CBI officer executed an income tax raid on the jewellery shop in Mumbai .


 In literature
Significance of ' FIRE ' and ' ICE '
 1)Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
 2) Ice and Fire by Edmund Spenser

Both poem in a comman thing fire and ice. we can see this thing as many ways like fire is a symbol of passion and Ice is a symbol of careless. Also Fire and Ice is symbol of the seasons of summer and winter. Also one is a symbol of anger and another is symbol of  calmness. The other side is both are dangerous .   Both have negative and positive strength.

Interaction with France professor

Interaction with France  professor

  On the date 22/01/2019 we had an interaction with the professors of  university of Lorraine, France . it was quite surprising visit of our department  there are two professors , pro.  Saeed paivandi .pro. Fontanini Christine they are on academic visite .

    They are talk on some topics like that social issues, Political trends and economical situation at them country. They also talk about the feminism and Ratio between the girls and boys in education and boys in the technical and engineering faculties. It's like situation of our country on this issues in the unemployment and education. Rich and poor people they also talks about the why this issues increase more because it's unequal distribution of wealth and you pay lesser salary an employee than you faced more difficulties with this kind of issues.

    So, it was an interesting interaction thanks to  Dilip barad sir for giving us opportunities to deal with scholars. 

Northrop Frye: Archetypes of Literature

Northrop Frye: The Archetypes of Literature

Northrop Frye was Canadian literary critic. He wrote on “Canadian literature” . he  away from the crowd, holding tight to powerful ideas that would change the way people thought about literature.  He  best known  as a  most  important literary theorists of 20th century. Frye spent his entire professional life teaching at the University of Toronto. where he proposed the idea that all books are based on timeless myths.

1)What is Archetypal Criticism? What does the archetypal critic do?

Archetypal means ‘Original form'. Archetypal criticism depends heavily on symbols and patterns.  It refers to universal symbols,  theme , character, images. It repeated throughout literature. It is a term in which Frye 's archetypal criticism strictly categorise works based on their genres which determine how on archetype is to be interpreted in a text .
Archetypal Critic would suggest that all human experience is connected through literature and this experience is expressed again and again by using the same pattern throughout time and space. There are some universal truths that we can learn by reading .


2)What is Frye trying prove by giving an analogy of ' Physics to Nature' and 'Criticism to Literature'?

       Northrop Frye has given a very different idea about Archetypal Criticism by comparing the human emotions or human characteristics with the cycle of seasons.

◆. Comedy  - spring
◆  Romance – summer
◆  Tragedy – Autumn
◆  Satire – winter

Spring:-

     The spring season represents the Comedy. As per the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of the hero, revival & resurrection. Spring also symbolizes the defeat of winter & darkness.

Summer:-

      The season of Summer indicates Romance because Summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar, & the romance genre culminates with some short of triumph usually marriage.

Autumn:-

      Autumn season signify the genre of Tragedy. As the autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar that's why the Autumn is parallels to the genre of Tragedy, because the genre of Tragedy is known for the fall on demise of the protagonist.

Winter:-

     season of winter denotes the satire genre because of it's darkness. It's a disillusioned & mocking form of the three other genres. It is notes for its darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos & the defeat of heroic figure.


.3)Share your views of Criticism as an organised body of knowledge. Mention relation of literature with history and philosophy.

    Northrop frye says on the relation of literature with history and philosophy that literature is the central division of the Humanities, flanked on one side by history and on other side by philosophy and historian deals with events and Philosopher for ideas but critic use both wisdom of philosophy and action of a history. Thus, literature is a connected with history and philosophy both.

4)Briefly explain inductive method with illustration of Shakespeare's Hamlet's Grave Digger's scene.

   Inductive  method move from scientific to general  . We can say that from that scene there is many illustration derived , like Yorick  soliloquy , declaration of Love, Hamlet's struggle with Leartes , corruption , blind superstition , loses emotion and at the end universal truth that all human being are moral. so this illustration from that scene , from scientific to general.





5)Briefly explain deductive method with reference to an analogy to Music, Painting, rhythm and pattern. Give examples of the outcome of deductive method.


    Deductive method moves from general to scientific . some art move in time , like music, and painting. Literature seemed  to be intermediate between music and painting , It's words from rhythms with approach a musical sequence of sounds at one of its boundaries , and form patterns which approach the hieroglyphics or pictorial image at the other. Everything in nature that we think  of as having some analogy with works of art. Deductive method derived thinking process and reasoning like from general to scientific.


6)Refer to the Indian seasonal grid (below). If you can, please read small Gujarati or Hindi or English poem from the archetypal approach and apply Indian seasonal grid in the interpretation.

Thinking activity on study of poetry

Matthew Arnold

     Matthew Arnold 24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888.  He was an English poet and cultural critic. who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of  Thomas Arnold. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues.

    The study of poetry Mathew Arnold was one of the foremost poet and critic of the 19th century. Arnold's most famous piece of literary criticism is his essay "The Study of Poetry."

        He could be called "the critic's critic", being a champion not only of great poetry , but of literary Criticism itself.

• Write about one idea of MATTHEW ARNOLD which you find interesting & relevant in your time?

   In our time Arnold idea of disinterested or detachment. It is interesting also relevant in our time. Mathew Arnold says about the first principle of criticism is the Disinterested and Detachment .Disinterested on the part of the critic implies freedom from all the prejudice, personal and historical. So the work of literature should be criticise or judged as the independent work rather than considering its effects on author or the reader. It should be free from all the prejudice either it historical or personal. It is very important thing for the fair judgement for the critic.

• Write about one idea of MATTHEW ARNOLD which you find out of date & irrelevant in your time?

      The idea of the "Touchstone" method given by Arnold is not appropriate in recent times. Arnold while giving his touchstone method makes reader aware about the fallacy in judgement. His   view that 'Historical fallacy' and 'Personal fallacy' marks the real estimate of poetry. The poet whose work is to be compared with the work of the great poets may differ in expression. So, this idea might create a difficulty to understand the real estimate of a work.

Thank you...