Structuralism

by John Sturrock

Published 15 November 1993
Structuralism is a powerful movement in the human sciences which has had a lasting impact and the influence across a broad range of academic disciplines. Part of the "Paladin Movements and Ideas" series, this book traces the intellectual roots of structuralism, dating from the early part of this century in the linguistic theories of Saussure and the literary theory of Jakobson and the Russian formalists. It was in France in the 1950s that Barthes and Levi-Strauss helped to elaborate and popularize it. They and their French followers applied structuralist ideas to literature, to architecture, to anthropology and, most famously, to "popular culture". Structuralism was the first intellectual movement to take the manifestations of modern life in advertising, television, film, supermarkets and sports seriously.