Structuralist Literary Theory

Glossary of Terms


Narratology. The term was firstly used by T. Todorov, who argued for a shift in focus from the
surface level of text-based narrative (i.e. concrete discourse as realized in the form of letters,
words and sentences) to the general logical and structural properties of narrative. The
“scientific” study of literature.


Story and Discourse. The crucial structuralist dichotomy based on the Russian Formalist dichotomy
between fabula and sujet. Story and discourse are explicitly treated as having equal status. Every
narrative can be viewed either as story (reffering to the chronological order of events, characters
and settings) or as sjuzet (reffering to the order of presentation of these events). In simple
terms, the story is the what in a narrative that is depicted, discourse the how.


Narrative analysis. French structuralists provide general study of narratives with specific system
of the analyses of narratives. Based on the fundamental distinction between story and discourse,
they suggest to analyse plot and characters and also time and aspects of narration. Thus, French
structuralists developed a unique system of the analyses of these categories, using concepts such
as narrative grammar, character, narrator, time, and their sub-categories.


Myth. The inquiry of myths in the French Structuralist movement considers myths specific modes of
signification. Myths are also specifically structured and can be analysed as products of mass
bourgeois culture, like advertisements. Myths can be analyzed as stories as well as second order
signifying systems.


Actants and actors are categories used for an analysis of stories. Actants represent abstract
entities, cores of actions, and their functions within the abstract structures of stories, actors
represent concrete characters which can be filled in these abstract clusters.

Artistic structure: A dynamic complex of aesthetically actualized components grouped in a complex
hierarchy which in turn is unified by the dominance of one component over others.

Aesthetic function: One of the four functions which operates in artworks and dominates the other
functions. The aesthetic function is not a property of an object, is under the control of an
individual, and it is stabilized by the collective. The distribution of the aesthetic function in
the material world is tied to a particular society.

Subject: A semiotic gate to/from the artwork, an ultimate result of all the semantic energy
centered around the communication of two personalities through the medium of an artwork.
Personality (an abstract subject) is repeatedly proclaimed the ultimate meaning of a (literary)
artwork.


Literary development: Literature represents a specific developing structure of which the most
important qualities are being energetic and dynamic. This structure is placed in the collective
consciousness and particular literary artworks are parts of this developing structure. The works’
authors, as individuals, guarantee the connection of this specific structure with outer structures:
historical, cultural, political etc.