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Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones Released May 16, 2002 Directed by George Lucas Produced by Rick McCallum Written by George Lucas & Jonathan Hales Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy A thought on Lucas’s prequel failures, and Jar Jar Binks via Dr. David Lavery MTSU. Structuralism Theory Structuralists assert that, since language exists in patterns, certain underlying elements are common to all human experiences. Structuralists believe we can observe these experiences through patterns: "...if you examine the physical structures of all buildings built in urban America in 1850 to discover the underlying principles that govern their composition, for example, principles of mechanical construction or of artistic form..." you are using a structuralist lens (Tyson 197). Variations Structuralism is used in literary theory, for example, "...if you examine the structure of a large number of short stories to discover the underlying principles that govern their composition...principles of narrative progression...or of characterization...you are also engaged in structuralist activity if you describe the structure of a single literary work to discover how its composition demonstrates the underlying principles of a given structural system" (Tyson 197-198). Northrop Frye, however, takes a different approach to structuralism by exploring ways in which genres of Western literature fall into his four mythoi: 1. theory of modes, or historical criticism (tragic, comic, and thematic); 2. theory of symbols, or ethical criticism (literal/descriptive, formal, mythical, and anagogic); 3. theory of myths, or archetypal criticism (comedy, romance, tragedy, irony/satire); 4. theory of genres, or rhetorical criticism (epos, prose, drama, lyric) (Tyson 240). Structuralism Framework Two important theorists form the framework (hah) of structuralism: Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. Peirce gave structuralism three important ideas for analyzing the sign systems that permeate and define our experiences: 1. "iconic signs, in which the signifier resembles the thing signified (such as the stick figures on washroom doors that signify 'Men' or 'Women'; 2. indexes, in which the signifier is a reliable indicator of the presence of the signified (like fire and smoke); 3. true symbols, in which the signifier's relation to the thing signified is completely arbitrary and conventional [just as the sound /kat/ or the written word cat are conventional signs for the familiar feline]" (Richter 810). Structuralism Cheat Sheet •Motto: “We don’t see words, but signs.” sign = Signifier Signified •Critical Moves: Close words, binary opposites, look at how signs are defined by other signs within the text •Outside Information: Definitions and etymology of words, allusions, conventions of the genre (cannot use cultural context or author’s bio) •Drawbacks: No authorial input. “The author is dead.” •Trans-historical Approach Structuralism in SF Literature Stanislaw Lem: Todorov's Fantastic Theory of Literature “Structuralism was to be a remedy for the immaturity of the humanities as manifested in their lack of sovereign criteria for deciding the truth or falsehood of theoretical generalizations. ” Lem “Todorov distinguishes three aspects of the literary work: the verbal, the syntactic and the semantic, making no secret of the fact that these were formerly known as style, composition and theme. But their invariants have traditionally and mistakenly been sought "on the surface" of texts; Todorov declares that he will look for structures on a deep level, as abstract relations.” Lem Structural Fabulation: An Essay on Fiction of the Future Science fiction seen as “fiction of the future.“ Defines fabulation as "fiction that offers us a world clearly and radically discontinuous from the one we know, yet returns to confront that known world in some cognitive way.“ Structural fabulation is "simply a new mutation in the tradition of speculative fiction" which is "modified by an awareness of the nature of the universe as a system of systems, a structure of structures," and in which "the insights of the past century of science are accepted as fictional points of departure.“ Robert Scholes Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008 Ray Bradbury 1920-2012 • A Conversation with Ray Bradbury • Fahrenheit 451: Book Summary and Analysis by Thug Notes Ursula K. Le Guin 1929 - A Princess of Mars (1917) Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) Deleted Opening Scene featuring the Princess of Helium Extended 10 minute clip Images and video courtesy of Disney Studios Bibliography "Barsoom." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 July 2014. Web. 25 July 2014. Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Tompkins. "Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism."Purdue OWL. Purdue University, n.d. Web. 25 July 2014. Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. Dir. Edith Becker and Kevin Burns. Prometheus Entertainment/20th Century Fox, 2004. "John Carter." Disney Movies. Disney, n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.