Structuralism
Structuralism marks the beginning of a new way of analyzing literary texts. Taking inspiration from Ferdinand de Saussure's concepts and analytic distinctions, structuralism conceives literature as a second order signifying system that uses the first order structural system of language as its medium. This particular movement or rather mode of criticism was inaugurated in the 1950s by French structural anthropologist, Claude Levi Strauss, who used Saussure's model of linguistics to analyze such cultural phenomena as mythology, kinship relations,etc. When it came to literary narratives, Gerard Genette used the structuralist linguistic model and came up with five elements to be kept in mind while analyzing them.
Born in 1930, Gerard Genette, is particularly noted for his association with the structuralist critics such as Roland Barthes and Claude Levi Strauss from whom he adapted the concept of bricolage; the idea that methods developed for the study of one discipline could be satisfactorily applied to the other discipline as well.
The aim of this post is to apply Gerard Genette's concepts of narratology to the movie "The Book Thief", which was made on the novel of the same title by Markus Zusak.
1) Order: Order refers to the order or arrangement of events in a narrative or story. The arrangement can be chronological, i.e, from A to B to C, as is the case with most of our bildungsroman novels or biographies. Or this arrangement can be altered with flashbacks and flash-forwards, as is found in our suspense stories. If we take the case of 'The Book Thief' it appears chronological, to a certain extent. It begins with Death, as the narrator, meeting 'the book thief', i.e Liesel Meminger on a train. The narrative of the book then follows the experiences of the protagonist in Nazi Germany.
2) Frequency: This refers to the separation between an event and its narration. Now, here again there are numerous possibilities. Either the event can occur once and be narrated once or it can occur once and be narrated many times; either it can occur many times and narrated narrated just once or it can occur many times and narrated as many times. Sounds confusing right? Let's have a look at The Book Thief then. The marching of the Jews for clean up work by German soldiers happens twice, each time providing a new perspective towards the protagonist's situation, and is narrated both the time with equal precision.
3) Duration: The separation between an event and its narration implies that there is discourse time and narrative time. When we read "two years later" or "ten years later" in movies or in books it takes seconds to read but in reality it is a long discourse time. A lot many things can happen in that time span. In 'The Book Thief' we see that after her tragic experiences in Nazi Germany, Liesel is discovered by Death "several years" later in Sydney. We are not informed what and how was her life after she survived the bombing. We just know that she lived a long life.
4) Voice: Now, this is where the analysis of the novel gets interesting. Voice is concerned with who narrates and from where. Is the narrator a participant in the plot or story, Or is s/he an outsider, a third person. The narrator is not always a human entity, as 'The Book Thief' exemplifies. And yet we question Who is this 'Death' ? As far as The Book Thief is concerned, 'Death' is the narrator and it is narrating the story as a third person. We can assume that Death may be a personification of injustice or war or Nazism in this case, as Death meets Liesel at such events time and again in the work.
5) Mood: The mood of a narrative is again dependent on the narrator and the event s/he/it focalizes. The questions to be asked here are who is at the center of the narrator's story? Why is s/he/it at the focal point? What does the being of s/he/it at the center mean? If Death is the narrator in The Book Thief, what and whom does it keep in the focus? One might say that Liesel is at the center of Death's narrative. Then why is it so? These are questions to keep in mind while understanding the mood of a narrative.
Thus, structuralism provides a deeper insight into a narrative. Identifying the structure and the relationships between its elements is what structuralism concerns itself with. And in the case of The Book Thief, it helps in having a better understanding of the text.
Born in 1930, Gerard Genette, is particularly noted for his association with the structuralist critics such as Roland Barthes and Claude Levi Strauss from whom he adapted the concept of bricolage; the idea that methods developed for the study of one discipline could be satisfactorily applied to the other discipline as well.
The aim of this post is to apply Gerard Genette's concepts of narratology to the movie "The Book Thief", which was made on the novel of the same title by Markus Zusak.
1) Order: Order refers to the order or arrangement of events in a narrative or story. The arrangement can be chronological, i.e, from A to B to C, as is the case with most of our bildungsroman novels or biographies. Or this arrangement can be altered with flashbacks and flash-forwards, as is found in our suspense stories. If we take the case of 'The Book Thief' it appears chronological, to a certain extent. It begins with Death, as the narrator, meeting 'the book thief', i.e Liesel Meminger on a train. The narrative of the book then follows the experiences of the protagonist in Nazi Germany.
2) Frequency: This refers to the separation between an event and its narration. Now, here again there are numerous possibilities. Either the event can occur once and be narrated once or it can occur once and be narrated many times; either it can occur many times and narrated narrated just once or it can occur many times and narrated as many times. Sounds confusing right? Let's have a look at The Book Thief then. The marching of the Jews for clean up work by German soldiers happens twice, each time providing a new perspective towards the protagonist's situation, and is narrated both the time with equal precision.
3) Duration: The separation between an event and its narration implies that there is discourse time and narrative time. When we read "two years later" or "ten years later" in movies or in books it takes seconds to read but in reality it is a long discourse time. A lot many things can happen in that time span. In 'The Book Thief' we see that after her tragic experiences in Nazi Germany, Liesel is discovered by Death "several years" later in Sydney. We are not informed what and how was her life after she survived the bombing. We just know that she lived a long life.
4) Voice: Now, this is where the analysis of the novel gets interesting. Voice is concerned with who narrates and from where. Is the narrator a participant in the plot or story, Or is s/he an outsider, a third person. The narrator is not always a human entity, as 'The Book Thief' exemplifies. And yet we question Who is this 'Death' ? As far as The Book Thief is concerned, 'Death' is the narrator and it is narrating the story as a third person. We can assume that Death may be a personification of injustice or war or Nazism in this case, as Death meets Liesel at such events time and again in the work.
5) Mood: The mood of a narrative is again dependent on the narrator and the event s/he/it focalizes. The questions to be asked here are who is at the center of the narrator's story? Why is s/he/it at the focal point? What does the being of s/he/it at the center mean? If Death is the narrator in The Book Thief, what and whom does it keep in the focus? One might say that Liesel is at the center of Death's narrative. Then why is it so? These are questions to keep in mind while understanding the mood of a narrative.
Thus, structuralism provides a deeper insight into a narrative. Identifying the structure and the relationships between its elements is what structuralism concerns itself with. And in the case of The Book Thief, it helps in having a better understanding of the text.
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