sts look for patterns and systems that can change the way we perceive our reality. They seek to describe things that are familiar in terms of systems or structures. Post-structuralists, on the other hand, do not see reality or individuals as constructed through independent systems but a collage of various influences. Structuralism is based on the belief that cultural objects such as literature, art, architecture, etc. cannot be understood in isolation -- they must be studied within the context of the larger structures to which they contribute and within which they developed. In terms of text, it is viewed as a function of a system and not so much as an individual creation. The emphasis is placed not on the author as the origin of the text or of meaning, but on the structures that texts inhabit and how they constrict the culture within which we live. This systematic view of literature is based on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist who saw language as a closed or self-contained system. Saussure's conception of language was based on the premise that the meanings that words are associated with are arbitrary and are maintained only through cultural conventions, and that as such these meanings are relational in that no word can be defined in isolation from other words within the same system. Because meaning and representation are arbitrary constructs, Saussure also believed that language is the midium through which reality is established. In other words, language does not merely label the world, but as meaning is attributed to objects/ideas within the mind and expressed through language, reality is created. Key terms used by Saussure and applied to structuralist literary theory are langue -- which represents the whole system of language and the rules and conventions therein, and parole -- any particular utterance within that system that only makes sense when viewed in relation to the larger structure that contains it. Structu...
