StructuralismFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
Theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves. This method found wide use from the early 20th cent. in a variety of fields, especially linguistics, particularly as formulated by Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson. Structuralism has been influential in literary criticism and history, as with the work of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault.