Notes on Saussure, Structuralism & Genre

Structuralism denaturalizes culture, all meaning is mediated via language and codes. SAUSSURE/ (1857 – 1913), GOAL = describe the structure of language. Founds semiology, “the science that studies the life of signs. “ Based on notion of SIGNIFICATION. Meanwhile, C.S. Peirce founds semiotics to study symbols: INDEX (A, B, C, meaning system), ICON, and SYMBOL (arbitrary meaning). Results in the transformation of many disciplines which adapt his linguistic models to other means of communication/culture. Frederic Jameson: the linguistic turn leads to rethinking everything in terms of linguistics (structures). Saussure pioneers notion of SIGNIFYING FORMS . 1) Must study language scientifically as a System, utterance/”parole”, language system/”langue”, 2) Isolate Function (not just history of words/forms), 3) Study SIGN = SIGNIFIER (green in traffic light) and SIGNIFIED (means go). Saussure argues that language is not a mere product of reality but rather it helps form reality → study of language systems in action (a shift from usual linguistics of origins or how languages got here). Language systems have underlying codes or systematic rules that dictate their structure, → Vladimir Propp on Russian folk tales, isolates constant characters and their plot functions and structures, recurring sequences like sentences. → structural anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss analyzes culture via deep structures and functions. Cinema Studies: Auteur Structuralism and Genre Structuralism and “film language” analyzes for SIGNIFYING PRACTICE. CODES = systems of signs that make them meaningful in relation to one another, examples: English language, traffic lights, dress codes, codes of conduct. Western: Gunfight (good vs evil) = a fight for the entire community and its future but… variation (individual variation in a larger system that still functions by retaining some elements of the code). Liberty vs Ransom, variation on generic norm (night, drunken Liberty and Ransom in apron) and Tom cheats and shoots from the valley. SCHATZ: Genre = examine what it means to be American and reinforce it. For filmmakers a range of expression, for audiences a range of experience. Determinate space in genres (like the gangster film in the city) vs indeterminate space (like the musical). “A genre studied as a formalized sign system whose rules have been assimilated through cultural consensus.”