Structuralism [first Edition] | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Structuralism [first Edition]

STRUCTURALISM [FIRST EDITION]. In their widely read anthology of this topic, Richard T. De George and Fernande M. De George (1972) note that "bibliographies on structuralism can be virtually endless if one succumbs to the temptation to include everything related to the topic," but they claim that the following authors "are almost certain to be included in any list of structuralists" (p. vii): Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan. This may be so, but the term structuralism was not used before 1950, and each of the last three individuals named has repudiated the label. Moreover, the list need not begin with Marx; my own favorite protostructuralist is Giambattista Vico (1668–1744). My problem, therefore, is to indicate the core of the structuralist position within a very wide range of variation. The De Georges' formula can serve as a starting point: "An enterprise which unites Marx, Freud, Saussure and modern structuralists [is] … the attempt to uncover deep structures, unconscious motivations, and underlying causes which account for human action at a more basic and profound level than do individual conscious decisions" (p. xii).

History of the Term

The word structure has a much longer academic history than does structuralism.

Structuralism [first Edition] article

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