Levi Strauss - Binary Opposition

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908 – 2009) was a French narrative theorist and anthropologist. He argued in his 1962 work La Pensée sauvage 'that the "savage" mind has the same structures (untamed human thought) as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere. 
BINARY OPPOSITION’S THEORY
His theory was that the way we understand certain words doesn’t depend on the meaning it creates but more on our understanding of the difference between the word and its opposite, the binary oppositions.
He realised that words purely act as symbols for the ideas of society and the meaning of words, therefore, he believed that there was a relationship between opposing ideas.
Binary oppositions can be found in a range of media products such as a film trailers.

EXAMPLES OF BINARY OPPOSITIONS:
Binary oppositions can be found in a range of media products such as a film trailers.

We easily understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL.
Levi-Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in
the plot or the narrative.
This theory again ties in with dominant ideology.

Below is an image that represents a happy family as set out in dominant British ideologies.
Handsome, healthy and perfect smiles on the faces of the young family.





Dominant ideology is the set of common values and beliefs shared by most people in a given society, framing how the majority think about a range of topics.

The items on the left hand side of the list below are what media texts set out as ideological in the West.

Male > Female
White > Black
Happy > Unhappy
Family > Single
Rich > Poor
Clever > Stupid
Ability > Disability

Savage thought, Lévi-Strauss argues, continually gathers and applies structures wherever they can be used.

These observations culminated in his famous book ‘Tristes Tropiques’, which positioned him as one of the central figures in the structuralist school of thought.

Structuralism

This can be said to be a set of ideas which emphasise two positions..

Marx and Freud interpreted the social world in this structured way.
Freud argued that the human psyche makes us act in ways that we may not be aware of or don't know why.
For example, structural anthropology might study how a culture organises its rules on say, food using different sets of rules: 

Exclusion, English see eating frogs and snails as a barbaric French custom.

Opposition, savoury and sweet courses are not usually eaten together.

Association, Steak and chips followed by ice cream are OK but steak and ice cream followed by chips???

Only within such sets of rules would certain combinations be valued or seen as wrong/rebellious/eccentric.

• Good vs evil, this is shown in genres such as action and thrillers in a protagonist and antagonist role.

• Dark vs light, this is again shown in action/thriller/horror films.

• Past vs future, this can be shown in action and history genres,

• Feminine vs masculine this is particularly seen in horror/ thriller films as females are generally seen as being victims and males are seen to be killers.

Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. 

An example would be GOOD and EVIL.

He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. 

French linguist Ferdinand Sassure pioneered the study of language as a system of signs, codes and structures. By defining terms as being opposite to other terms; black/white, hot/cold.
Woman is almost always defined as the opposite to man. We define feminity in relation to masculinity. The moment we are born we reach for pink or blue baby clothes.

Genre is an inseperable part of understanding how meanings are encountered in practice and this blend of repetition and difference is key to us making sense of the information we are given.

Task 1: Titanic.

The narrative of the Titanic (US 1997) works partly through differences.

How many of the structuring oppositions of the film are visible here?

Task 2: Below are some links to trailers.
Watch them and identify any binary opposites that have been put in place to reveal the structure of the text.


Fright Night

Schindler's List

The Amazing Spiderman




Role Models



P.S. I Love You