Structural Analysis of a literary Text

Liaqat Ali Mohsin Yassar Subhani Faisal Mehmood Shahid Rashid Qasim Ali Muhammad Naveed Akhtar

Lahore Leads University Lahore

Structuralism
European
1920s

North American
1930s 1960s

Lets have a glance over what was before Structuralism!

1. Use of Historicism 2. Reconstruction of dead languages 3. Similarities between languages thought to be related historically to those dead languages. In19th century historical, diachronic, perspective was in practice.

European Structuralism
Main tenets
1) Language has a structure 2) Language is a system of signs 3) Language operates at two levels: langue and parole 4) Studied diachronically (specific time) 5) Holistic Approach, study as a whole 6) Underlying System is studied 7) Focus on unobservable data Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 - 1913

8) Structures are limited in the society

9) Signs are nothing, rather stands for something(Signification) 10)Signs are arbitrary 11)Signs are different from others

American Structuralism
Main tenets
1) Linguistics is a descriptive science. 2) The primary form of language is the spoken one.

3) Every language is a system on its own right.

4) Language is a system in which smaller units arrange systematically to form larger ones. 5) Meaning should not be part of linguistic analysis.

6) The procedures to determine the units in language should be objective and rigorous.
7) Language is observable speech, not knowledge.

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE
O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy;

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy. William Blake 28 November 1757 12 August 1827

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE Rose Worm Invisible That flies Howling storm The bed Crimson Joy life The night Dark Love destroy Finding out

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE Rose Worm Invisible That flies Howling storm The night Dark Love destroy Finding out We have applied systematic approach

Ideas are studied as a whole, holistic approach

Visible Static Calm The bed Crimson Joy Life Fade out

Signs are referring some thing

Signs are understood in difference

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE Rose Worm Invisible That flies Howling storm The night Dark Love destroy Finding out Abstract relationship, unobservable data, so you have various interpretation

Signification of these images, ideas and objects

Visible Static Calm The bed Crimson Joy Life

Diachronic meanings with binaries

Abstract and concrete images

Fade out

Structural Analysis of a Poem

1. Symbols used (arbitrary) 1. Rose 2. Worm 3. Night 4. Howling Storm 5. Bed 6. Dark Love 7. Crimson joy Metaphor and other figures of speech 1. Personification 2. Metaphor 3. Apostrophe 4. Enjambment Repetition of certain structures 1. Sick, worm, storm, dark, secret, destroy Meter 1. Two quatrains 2. ABCB rhyme

THE SICK ROSE

O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm,

2.

3.

Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

4.

Structural Analysis of a Poem

THE SICK ROSE
1. Larger perspective Rose and its sickness

O Rose, thou art sick!

1. Addressed to some one (Apostrophe)

The invisible worm,

1. 2. Not literal, rather abstract effects Mysterious aspect of destruction

That flies in the night,

1. Mysterious becomes more intense

In the howling storm,

1. Personified image, only understood if someone knows howling of dogs and wolves.

Structural Analysis of a Poem

Has found out thy bed
1. 2. Bed is place to lie literally, place for flower Bed shows its comfort and luxury (different from person to person)

Of crimson joy;
1. Red as a symbol of happiness. Bloodshed as well. Birth

And his dark secret love

1. 2. 3. Human like qualities to worm Secret force is further emphasized Contrasted to delicacy of rose

Does thy life destroy.

1. End of mysterious nature

Post Structural Analysis of a Poem

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Reality cant be determined/not concrete No coherence of systems Polysemy unrestricted phenomenon Human is centre rather system is Reader response Consideration for historical influence No exact binary opposition, ideas and related concept Foucault gave genealogy of knowledge

10. Deconstruction of Derrida, no exact opposition possible 11. Reader centered rather writer centered

Post Structural Analysis of a Poem

1. Setting of the poem 2. Religious allusion of Bible 3. Tone of the poem 4. Historical development of poetry. 5. Religious life of the poet, influences, mystic, philosophy 6. Pre-Romanticism 7. Love of nature 8. Speaker and intention of the poet. 9. Genre of the poem 10. Songs of innocence

THE SICK ROSE

O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm,

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

1. Allusion to Devil and spoiling human ecstasy 2. Lyrical poem and its background 3. Poet being a painter 4. Sexual interpretation, rose as feminine and worm as masculine 5. Use of present tense 6. Use of punctuations 7. Narrative Poem 8. Life history and style of the poet 9. Spring season

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