WEEK 3- STRUCTURALISM

Today’s lecture focused on the concept of Structuralism. In order to grasp this complex term, Richard began by using a simple example we may encounter on a daily basis that demonstrates a series of opposites that create meaning. For instance, the human brain is able to differentiate between the actual word ‘cat’ and the mental image of a cat. In this sense it is the grammar that makes the meaning possible. However, within films, instead of using words and grammar we use pictures and imagery, thus structuralism is formed. From this it then became apparent that structuralism can be applied to almost all movies. In relation to American cinema, structuralism acts a framework that carries the story. A vast majority of films will use binary opposites, such as good and bad, strong and weak, that will depict the narrative to the audience. Richard asked us all to think of our favourite film and discuss how these binary opposites within the film help structure it. My favourite film ‘Taken’ by Pierre Morrell, highlighted binary opposites such a ‘good ‘and ‘bad’ and ‘inside society’ and ‘outside society’. We then concluded with discussing how Laura Mulvey’s theory of feminism can be applied to a number of movies such as ‘Bend it like Beckham’ which we will be looking at next week. Again structuralism is used throughout this film, and we see binary opposites such as ’identity’ and ‘gender’.