Thinking Activity

                  Structuralism

                            By             

                 Gerard Genette

☆ Brief introduction about Gerard Genette :-

Born : 7th June, 1930

     Death : 11 May, 2018      

Gerard Genette was a French literary theorist, associated in perticular with the structuralist movement and such figures as Roland Barthes and Claude Levi Strauss from whom he adapted the concept of bricolage. Additionally his work on narrative, best known in English through the Selection Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method has been of importance. His international influence is not as great as that of some others identified with structuralism. His work is more often included in selections or discussed in secondary work than studied in its own right. For more about his biography and works CLICK HERE. 

Gerard Genette's Structuralism and literary Criticism  :-

Difference between Criticism and creativity  :-

Gerard Genette said that,

If the writer questions the universe, the critic questions literature, that is to say, the universe of signs. But what was a sign for the writer becomes meaning for the critic and in another way what was meaning for the writer becomes a sign for the critic, as the theme and symbol of a certain literary nature.

The essay is divided into three parts.

● In the first part of the essay he discussed about what is structuralism and how is it applied to the study of literature. According to him structuralism is the offshoot of certain development in linguistics and anthropology. In literary theory structuralism is an approach to analysing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure. 

● In the second part of the essay he discussed about application of structuralism. They are primarily used to look at the syntax of narratives rather than to perform an interpretation of them. According to Gerard Genette any literary texts we can criticising on the basis of following rules :-

♧ Order  :-

                   Say a story is as follows : a murder occurs; then the circumstances of the murder are revealed to a detective. Finally the murderer is caught. These disarrangements on the level of order are termed ' Anachrony.'

♧ Frequency  :-

                            The separation between an event and its narration allows several possibilities. 

¤ An event can occur in times and be narrated once.

¤ An event can occur once and be narrated in times.

¤ An event can occur in times and be narrated in times.

♧ Duration  :-

                         The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative times.

♧ Voice :-

                     Voice is concerned with who narrates and from where. This can be split four ways.

♤ Intra diegetic :- Inside the texts

♤ Extra diegetic :- outside the texts

♤ Hetero diegetic :- The character is not a                                                character in the story.

♤ Homo diegetic :- the narration is a                                                        character in the story.

♧ Mood :-

                  Genette said that narrative mood is dependent on the distance and perspective of the narrator and like music, narrative mood has predominant pattern. It is related to voice.

● In the third part of the essay he discussed about What structuralist critics do ?

For the example of Structuralism I would like to take the example  of  the movie Hamlet, directed  by Kenneth Branagh. 

If we can see on the sequence of Order that discuss in Structuralism by Gerard Genette then we can find out the sequence of murders throughout the movie. In the starting of the movie there is secret about the murder of King Hamlet that revealed by King Hamlet's Ghost to his Son Hamlet in the forest. So, throughout the there is suspensive mission of Find out the Murderer of King Hamlet by Hamlet. We can see sequence of murders throughout the movie.  First, King Hamlet, then Polonius, Ophelia,  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Laertes and at the end of the movie Claudius, Gertrude and Hamlet himself are dying.  So, we can says that the order of murders occurs in the movie Hamlet.

If we can see Hamlet on the Basis of Frequency that discussed by Gerard Genette than we can find out, 

An event can occur once and be narrated in times. 

Hamlet decides to kill his father's murderer Claudius, his own uncle. For that he planes many time but he doesn't succeed. He organises one function in their castle and plans to perform one play for reveals his uncle's truth. He get success in his plan and he decides to kill his uncle but he didn't. At the end of the play he kills his uncle Claudius. So, we can says that an events occurs once. The mission of Hamlet become successful at the end of the play.

Next, If we can discuss about Duration than we can says that there is much more difference between original play by Shakespeare and movie by Kenneth Branagh. In costumes, Architecture and look of characters also. Kenneth Branagh's movie is far away from the original play. Kenneth Branagh used Victorian type of Architecture of Castle in the movie. Clothes of characters also are very different. So, it is all about time and narration in the Hamlet, play and in movie both.

If we can say about Voice than we can find out both Intra diegetic and extra diegetic because the movie is about both inside the text and outside the text also. Because Kenneth Branagh is more trustful with the original text. He covered up all the events and incidents in the movie but there is some changes in the look and Architecture of castle in the movie.

So, it is all about my view on the basis of structuralism by Gerard Genette. 

Reference:-

https://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2015/03/structuralism-and-literary-criticism.html

Thank you.....