Structuralism and Semiotics: WTF? Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes and Structuralism Explained

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thanks for watching all! A slightly tough topic this week but an important part of literary and cultural theory. As always, if you like my stuff, I’d super appreciate you checking out my Patreon at patreon.com/tomnicholas

[@irenesartika8222]

Is there a video you make about CDA?

[@OjoRojo40]

Great video as usual, but I'm hear to be the pedantic asshole correcting french pronunciation. "Langue" is pronounced as in "Long".

[@mE-zx7pt]

Have you read Camille Pagia's writings? What are your thoughts on her attitude towards Foucault, Lacan & post-structuralism, etc.? Thank you for your videos!

[@firstlast-cs6eg]

12:58 I would expect a cat to hiss at a vacuum cleaner. Cat's aren't fond of loud noises and vacuums are usually pretty loud. They usually just flee them, but it would make sense for a cat to hiss at one too. Comparatively it would be strange for a cat to hiss at a mouse. Cats hiss as a threat, meaning they find what they hiss at, a threat. Mice aren't usually considered threats by cats. Lion would likely be considered a threat and be hissed at. Overall I don't see any bases for this argument of how we read words. We consider the whole meaning of the sentence. For example "He chopped up some bark" One would not expect someone to be chopping bark, but it's still a innocuous statement. "He chopped up some orphans" Similar lack of expectation for this to be the ending, but obviously has a more sinister implication. If with wider context the "orphans" were chickens who's parents are dead (thus orphans) the meaning changes again.

[@OjoRojo40]

@Carlos B I have no idea why did I post that message (now that I read it again). I must have been bored to dead, because indeed it sounds pedantic and stupid. Cheers mate, take care!

[@ndfricano]

As one of my professors once said, the whole structuralist approach could be summarised in one postulate: "the complexity of reality is based upon simple structures"

[@Tom_Nicholas]

That’s an awesome way to phrase it, I wish I had the evolution to come up with turns of phrase like that!

[@butterflymoon6368]

and what did they say about poststructuralism?

[@guteksan]

@@butterflymoon6368 Simple: "The complexity of reality is based upon simple poststructures" ;)

[@drapala97]

Your channel has such a great quality! You have a proffessoral vocation, your explanations are clear, concise and dynamic. The videos are very well edited. Thank you!

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thank you very much for saying so, that means a lot!

[@drapala97]

My pleasure!

[@DonnaSnyder]

Agreed.

[@bazingacurta2567]

Agreed. I like this guy a lot.

[@laurenbutler3317]

I'm doing my MA in Sociology right now and my lecturer isn't the best at explaining theories so these are VERY helpful. Thank you so much for this!

[@TheOaktownBlogger]

Hope your lecturer doesnt see this...

[@cheikhhamel3782]

بالتوفيق لك

[@jkRatbird]

At one point in this video I got shivers, when it finally fell into place for me how Noam Chomsky’s work as a linguist connects to broader political analysis and activism. Thank you!

[@JohnMoseley]

That's a KZbin video in itself waiting to be made, maybe an essay or a book. I've never seen anyone really try to explain or explore the connection between these two strands of Chomsky's work.

[@MoveOnUpMusicEvan]

Why am I getting major deja vu from this comment lol

[@user-tp7wi4lt2b]

@@JohnMoseley I'm sure there's plenty of work on this subject already, you just have to research a bit

[@JohnMoseley]

@@user-tp7wi4lt2b Maybe, yeah.

[@SquareyCircley]

@@JohnMoseley don't agree with all of it but Chris Knight's "Decoding Chomsky" is interesting

[@rushingandhi6888]

The energy here is unmatched and my oh my! one of the best explanations out there. Students survive and thrive at times too because such amazing lectures exist.

[@hontaiwangshu1289]

I wish we had you as our college professor. You're really good at explaining complicated concepts effectively. Thank you.

[@mateaYertle8]

Bless you for doing this. I have an exam tomorrow and I've just discovered your videos. You describe all of this better than my assigned literature in my native language. Thank you for giving me a chance to pass this class.

[@Tomsdrawings]

Did you pass buddy?

[@astrumsan603]

Hey Tom, thanks so much for this resource! Wanted to let you know that our high school literature teacher assigned this to us to watch when talking about literary theories! I was really surprised but I’m glad that your channel is reaching so many people :)

[@dapperman1402]

Just wanted to say how useful this was - really appreciate the effort you've put in!

[@JohannaTougu]

Thank you! Im a semiotics and culture theory student from Estonia and this helped me a lot when i started :)

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Really glad to hear it was helpful!

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

Will be eagerly waiting for you're video on post structuralism

[@Tom_Nicholas]

It’s in the works, don’t worry! Likely to add a third code to my Society of the Spectacle mini-series first but poststructuralism will be up next!

[@jamesferry1523]

Hi Tom, I feel the need to point out, whenever you use the word "infer," it seems that you mean "imply." Simply put, the text doesn't "infer" anything--we do that. The text only "implies." Same with people. The speaker, producer (or writer of the text) implies, while the listener, recipient, etc., infers. It's a very common error, but fyi.

[@LeonCouch]

Excellent summary. I learned these things prior to the internet's popularity and its numerous resources. That is, I read the original texts you cited, and it was hardgoing, because all of this was/is outside my field of study. I appreciate how you summed up everthing in an easily-understood and engaging way.

[@jacksonkerbs3426]

Hey Tom, would you ever be interested in doing an introduction to Deleuze and Guattari?

[@rimmstein]

Please, continue making these videos. Not only are they extremely useful for my studies, but also you explain things very well and make the topic even more interesting!

[@nazilik1786]

This video was EXTREMELY helpful for me to understand and make a presentation about the topic. Thank you so much, I really appreciate the effort you put in.

[@beyzagokterim8476]

Thank you so much for your videos, Tom. They have helped immensely for my studies of Literary Criticism.

[@jasonmontoyajr.9197]

Just stumbled upon this video while working on my final. I think that this is easily one of the best informative/teaching type videos ive ever seen. Just as the top comment says, this is a great video. You make great connections which are concise and applicable and this really helped me make some big connections. :) thank you

[@breeglasbergen1982]

Tom, this is so easy to digest. Thank you. My textbook on lit theory and my lecturer went on too many tangents for me to grasp the concept well. I really appreciate this video.

[@nonsinesole]

I love your videos, super accessible I started watching them under a year ago and go back and forth in the books and the authors you mention You are definately one of my top references/resources on the net Thanks and peace from Montréal

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thank you, I'm so glad you've found some of what I make useful!

[@idaercool]

Thank you for this explanaton! I was really confused from what I read in my textbook but after watching this video, it all now makes great sense

[@arpanchatterjee2559]

Read structuralism from Peter Barry, then watched this video and read Barry again. Felt like an altogether different text. Thanks for these videos, Tom.

[@JudymayMurphy]

I’m thrilled to have discovered your channel, Tom. Keep up the stellar work! Jmx

[@sourourbenticha8493]

I'm seeing this for my Critical Theories exam tomorrow.. You're a life savior, thank you! 😄

[@udbhavseth799]

gosh, the animal/mineral/vegetable example was fantastic. so intuitive

[@louploup]

I've studied cultural studies for both my BA and MA and now started a phd in STS/history of science. It's shocking how much you forget if you're not actively using these things regularly. Really great videos! They help me refreshing my knowledge on key concepts in an accessible way when I can't bare reading another text. But one thing....why on earth would a cat hiss at a mouse?? ;)

[@michaelmcilrath9466]

Mmmm bare…. bear…

[@useralina]

I'm studying linguistics at the university and we've been talking about Saussure for a month at every single class, starting with our professor saying that He's now our father, mother and lover at the same time. randomly seeing his name again on a youtube video was so weird anyway, great vid! I deeply enjoy your work

[@njm2699]

19:10 and this is a very important concept of Manufacturing Consent :)

[@yaqian7435]

Thanks for sharing! After having lessons on Levi-Strauss and Totemism, haven't really got the idea of what structuralism means. This video helps me understand it better.

[@LaVidaDeSol]

Your content is helping me SO INCREDIBLY MUCH in my first year of cultural studies. I really appreciate the way you present these theories, makes it quite easy to grasp :)

[@saras.9698]

My history professor has been discussing Saussure in class but it was mostly incoherent to me. You are much better at explaining stuff. Thank you!

[@chrisgomez8811]

now I want to research the history of Structalism in Psych it frustrates me to no end that literally none of my professors up until this point have mentioned that structalism was a literary theory because they seem to go really hand in hand Love your videos, especially this one! Combing through your catalog (since I've only recently found your channel) has been a blast

[@MRoy-lj1hh]

Thank you so much for your lucid and thorough presentations. They really help me in my work. Keep going!

[@Mjolkmaestro]

Damn, I appreciate your channel so much!

[@ivyghosh6779]

Hey Tom, thank you so much for this video. This is really very helpful for a student like me we have developed love in semiotics just a few days back and want to explore more and more in this field. Thank you ❤️

[@cheikhhamel3782]

بالتوفيق لك

[@frvn6756]

Man. Thanks for this video, it's been super instructive. Well done

[@alba__ricoques]

I loved this one, it's been fascinating

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thanks! So glad to hear that. Was slightly worried that I’d returned to the linguistics stuff a bit too often!

[@singingcatfishagain]

Fascinating! These are theories I'll have to delve deeper into. Thank you for the introduction.

[@samiraaboutaleb7662]

THANK YOU !!!! I have been struggeling with this for so long !!

[@Tom_Nicholas]

No worries, glad I was able to help in some way!

[@mariyumabid7330]

I have a midterm tomorrow and this really helped me. thanks man

[@Litagora]

Discovered this channel recently, find your explanation of complex ideas very accessible, think this [apart from other things] makes your videos distinct, please, keep up the good work and videos coming.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thank you, really appreciate you saying so!

[@prof.joanaalmeida2074]

You are the best university in the world. Thank you so much !

[@jamesroberts2282]

Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero’s Journey, is a fascinating piece of work looking at the archetypes consistent throughout cultures found in literature.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Yes, The Hero With a Thousand Faces is an interesting piece of work and has had a massive impact particularly on film writing. I did have a whole bit about it in this video but I cut it for time in the end and because it’s more Jungian than Structuralist in its approach even if the results are similar. I don’t know in what esteem it’s viewed by anthropologists though.

[@jamesroberts2282]

Tom Nicholas your channel is still rocking it when it comes to the quality of its content. Keep up the good work.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thanks, really appreciate you saying so! I'll do my best!!

[@Nrandonom134]

Thanks for that video ! That is one excellent summary of the ideas of structuralism which gives a nice overview of the subject matter and its key thinkers.

[@shashankisshere]

totally in love with this channel!!!

[@horrorhabit8421]

I've been a student of Sanskrit and Sanskrit-based languages for some time now. There is a perception among Sanskrit students that the meaning of many Sanskrit words is somehow encoded into their sound, the effects they have on human physiology, their length, and their etymologies. How valid is the belief? I don't know, I'm just throwing the idea out there.

[@rashijain6319]

I finally made it through this video😭. It took me a long time to fully absorb this but thank u so much for making this.

[@aleksandrahigson8631]

Movie mistake: the cat purred at the mouse. A great addition to my anthropology notes :)

[@LukePalmer]

I appreciate that when you depicted Perseus at 8:43 you included the wang

[@teacherfelipeqg]

Excellent video. You could have as well added a mention to the works of Greimas and the discoursive (or french) semiotics. Accordinng to François Dosse "semiotics is to linguistics as algebra is to mathematics". Greimas' main work Structural Semantics is focused on how beyond the threshold of the phrase (considered the linguistic unit by Saussure), the text, or discourse also has an underlying structure. His concept of generative course of meaning is central to many works in literary and visual arts analysis. I myself wrote a paper analyzing a computer game, just as might a poem, a tale or a ballet.

[@inesslt367]

thank you so much, this video was so helpful and it can allow to deepen my study on structuralism.

[@innocent_fugitive]

Love your videos so much! You’re switching infer and imply, wanted to let you know.

[@neilcreamer8207]

@Tom Nicholas Thank you for this excellent taster on Structuralism. I am looking into the idea of meaning and this subject is a great area for studying that. It was great to see Propp's name come up only a day after I'd first heard him mentioned in a talk on Old Testament criticism. Regarding meaning, a few times you said that a sentence or text 'infers' something. I wonder whether you meant to say 'implies'. A writer may imply something by their words, i.e. point to something without saying it directly (implicit versus explicit) whereas it is the reader who infers something from the words by 'reading in' a meaning which they have imagined. For example, you might say, "Mary was not a cook" and you might mean to imply that she was an awful cook whereas I, the reader, could infer that she considered cooking to be a bad use of her time, or any other plausible idea. Usually, inference is the domain of the listener or reader rather than the speaker or writer.

[@RamsesThePigeon]

I'm very pleased to have seen this comment, and I appreciate you offering friendly corrections where they're necessary.

[@spikedaniels1528]

Thanks!

[@MarkbyMarkAFosterPhD]

Very well done. If you are not a professor, I humbly suggest you consider that field.

[@annecasis1185]

Thank you sir for a comprehensive explanation of Structuralism.

[@osmankaandemirbas1109]

This has helped me a lot.Thanks Mr.Nicholas

[@kituyipeninahloyce841]

you are a very intelligent scholar. thanks for the explanation

[@francisconolasco8386]

Brilliant Job. When you speak about myths it would be really interesting to mention René Girard, even though he's on a category of its own.

[@zizismiles7973]

Your intro style reminds me of CBBC and I'm very much here for it P.s. appreciate what you do. Thank you!

[@theechooflove7955]

I absolutely love your amazing channel!!!!! This is so amazing to even speak of all I want to say is your lovely! And please keep sharing its food I need! 🤪😉

[@alisonarmstrong8421]

I am a great fan of Propp (and Schlovsky). I used Barthes' S/Z writerly reading technnique for my Ph.D. dissertation, applyig it to Joyce's short story, "Clay" in Dubliners.

[@Punk_Philosopher]

There is so much opacity around this and post -structuralism for both innocent and less innocent reasons, in my view. This was great and am going on to the vid on the latter.

[@Maria-ieiri-sho]

Very, very useful!! 👏 Waiting for the next one.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Really glad to hear it!

[@flashkraft]

I learned a bunch of this at design college. I have never used it much as a web developer but it was kinda interesting from what I remember of it.

[@SK-le1gm]

I’m after a TELEOLOGICAL analysis of a text. Why was it written? What does it do to the reader? What are the real world downstream impacts of the text? How aware is the writer or speaker of these impacts, and can different texts be created to mitigate or assist these impacts? Take the text “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine; a teleological analysis could drill down to the tone he uses, the pamphlet as a medium, the cultural context and how he represents a group of people who sought change, his desire to shock or inspire his reader, what might have happened if he had never written it etc. Anyone known for this? Thanks for a superb video!!!

[@Crocodonkey]

Awesome presenting of the idea🙏

[@stephanielmt]

Tom, I love your channel. Thank you for it. I would love it if you did a video on dyadic pairs within structuralism.

[@aditipatil1447]

Very well explained! Keep up the good work :)

[@ashmitraj3604]

So helpful. Absolutely fantastic

[@artigarg7377]

Crips clear and concise view on structuralism

[@HWalla23]

yAaaaaasss, one of these days I'll feel prepared enough to approach Course In General Linguistics

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Haha, I’ve thought about reading it in full occasionally but never have. From the sections I’ve delved into, it’s not that it’s particularly obtusely-written, just that it goes into so much detail that, if you’re not a linguist with a specific interest in the things Saussure talks about, it’s possibly not worth the time.

[@HWalla23]

@@Tom_Nicholas I don't know, my time is basically worthless -- I've just spent the summer plowing through the Standard Edition for no reason.

[@franciscojeronimo5881]

Once again your approach to something helped understand something else... Please, consider commenting Chomsky's "Manufacturing consent" with this stream ideas about structuralism in mind.

[@LunaVintner]

Your channel is my guilty pleasure.

[@aurelia160]

Thank you for the clear explanation! It was very helpful!

[@DanikaOliver]

Whoa, that's fancy, I'm subscribing.

[@LogicGated]

Pretty thorough for a 20 min vid!

[@mansouralmaswari5981]

It s so fruitful academic feast. Thanx indeed

[@Nopointasking]

Ramsay Bolton singlehandedly getting me my philosophy credit

[@sabgerland5298]

Very nice explanation!

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

Great job. Very useful video and you gave overview of a vastly complex topic . Now, I will use whatever I have learnt from your video in analysing films . Could you please suggest any books especially on structuralism and a book that gives in depth idea of post structuralism

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thanks! Propp's methodology is a good one to think about in terms of film. In a similar vein, you might like Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces or The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogel which is a slightly more reader-friendly version of the same ideas.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

On the issue of poststructuralism, I'd suggest taking a look at Oxford University Press's A Very Short Introduction to Poststructuralism and the book Understanding Poststructuralism which I haven't read but which looks to be really good!

[@ahmedelakrab]

Really great content. I wish you all the best :)

[@Yoda..]

Can you please record a vid on the meaning of the term historicism. It appears to be used in different way by different scholars. Does it refer to a preoccupation with historical questions when considering texts or is it a reference to a particular way of thinking and of approaching texts by 19th century historians? Some clarification on this will be helpful. Thanks

[@Gormathius]

There's a popular example in Norway of the importance of pause placement: "Skyt ham ikke; vent på meg/Skyt ham; ikke vent på meg" which means "Don't shoot him; wait for me/Shoot him; don't wait for me". If translated literally it reads "Shoot him not; wait for me/Shoot him; not wait for me" though the "Shoot him not" part is pretty outdated these days, as the 'not' would now typically be placed at the beginning. Hearing about the semantics part reminded me of that.

[@Jacob-hk6to]

amazingly thorough, thank you!

[@olivertrace6378]

What would Saussure say about about onomatopoeic words like 'bang' and 'slide' where the sound of the words seem to be connected to their meaning?

[@keithklassen5320]

Those exist, but they are the exception.

[@kseniatuominen7825]

Thank you! It is so well explained!

[@TheVip113]

I subscribed. Thank you so much! You saved my life!!!

[@jasonstevens3892]

Very digestible, thank you

[@lania2246]

Ah. Thank you! Now I can go write my essay and actually understand what I’m writing about.

[@BizRasam]

Yo Tom, much appreciated. Cheers.

[@I-mw7fs]

I love your videos! thank you!

[@crisellysdelacruz1482]

Thank you so much for this! Extremely helpful

[@b1g_m00n]

I really like your work!!

[@morganacres9360]

Indeed, does consciousness have a will? How and why do these structures come about? I feel like there is a deeper paradigm to explore here: how structuralism can be used to explain our personal experience and the origins of the "world" as we know it. Perhaps there is a structure to consciousness itself

[@Mlk-Al-Halabi]

Thanks man ! Great video

[@matt_cummins28]

More video excellent-ness. Cheers. Keep it up. Love your enthusiasm.

[@Tom_Nicholas]

Thanks, glad you liked!

[@AhsanKhan-rb6mh]

well done. Really a great help

[@nlsantiesteban]

It a shame you weren’t around when I was earning my PhD in Cultural Studies. Having to read some of these texts with only other theory texts for context was at time daunting.