What is Structuralism in literature?

So what is structuralism? The structuralist school emerges from theories of language and linguistics,
and it looks for underlying elements in culture and literature that can be connected so that critics can develop
general conclusions about the individual works and the systems from which they emerge. In fact, structuralism
maintains that "...practically everything we do that is specifically human is expressed in language".
If credit could be given for the creation or reinforcement of structuralism you would have to thank this
french anthropologist

Claude LviStrauss was:

A French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the
theory of structuralism and structural anthropology.
He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collge de France between 1959 and 1982
and was elected a member of the Acadmie franaise in 1973.
He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world and has
been called, alongside James George Frazer and Franz Boas, the "father of modern
anthropology".
Claude LviStrauss once argued that the savage mind had the same structures as the civilized mind
and that human characteristics are the same everywhere. You can find this in his book
Tristes Tropiques.
Another frenchman that dedicated a large amount of his life to add his literature to this structuralism
period was Ferdinand De Saussure. Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 1900s, in the structural
linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow and Copenhagen schools of
linguistics.

A picture of Ferdinand is below-

Structuralism is all about the definition and interpretation. The idea of structuralism
contributes to our understanding of
structure.

Importance of Structuralist ideas

The ideas given by the structuralist theorists have shown that the meaning of a concept is not
necessarily the definition. Structuralism introduces an idea of subject as opposed to an individual being,
Theorists were interested in breaking down and developing structures in culture.
Structuralism allowed for people to get a deeper look and better understanding into not only literature, but
cultural phenomena.

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