What is Structuralism?
Structuralism is a theoretical paradigm in sociology, anthropology and linguistics positing that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, Structuralism is “the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract culture”.
-Wikipedia
Structuralism is a method of analysis first developed to study the structure of language. It was then used to interrogate the relationship between a form of popular culture (mythology) and the culture that produced it.
–http://www.jahsonic.com/StructuralistFilmTheory.html
What is Structuralist Film Theory?
According to Wikipedia Structuralist film theory is a branch of film theory that is rooted in Structuralism, itself based on structural linguistics. Structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used to construct meaning in communication.
while according to thefreedictionary.com structuralism film theory is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves.
Structuralist film theory is particularly formulated by Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson while Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss used structuralism to study the kinship systems of different societies. No single element in such a system has meaning except as an integral part of a set of structural connections. These interconnections are said to be binary in nature and are viewed as the permanent, organizational categories of experience. Structuralism has been influential in literary criticism and history, as with the work of Roland Barthesand Michel Foucault. In France after 1968 this search for the deep structure of the mind was criticized by such “poststructuralists” as Jacques Derrida, who abandoned the goal of reconstructing reality scientifically in favor of “deconstructing” the illusions of metaphysics.
One of my more recent visual projects is a short animated film designed to introduce key concepts in structuralist and poststructuralist literary theory by Derrida.
Photo Sources:
ConFashion 
