Structuralism: The Architecture of Meaning in Language, Literature and Culture

Abstract

Structuralism emerged in the twentieth century as one of the most influential movements in the humanities and social sciences. It sought to explain how meaning is generated not through isolated elements but through the relationships and structures that govern them. Rooted in the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism revolutionized the study of language, literature, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and culture by asserting that all human phenomena can be analysed as systems of signs. This paper traces the development of structuralism from Saussure’s semiotic model to its wide-ranging applications by Claude Lévi-Strauss in anthropology, Roland Barthes and his contemporaries in literary theory, and Jacques Lacan in psychoanalysis. It also explores the structuralist commitment to scientific objectivity, its focus on synchronic systems, and the critical responses that led to post-structuralism. While structuralism has been challenged for its limitations, it continues to influence modern thought through its insistence that meaning arises from structure and relational difference rather than from inherent essence.