LEVI-STRAUSSBINARY OPPOSITIONS

BINARY OPPOSITIONS• Binary Oppositions are the contrast between two mutually

exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/evil, day/night, male/female, presence/absence, old/young

(found from www.mediaknowall.com 12/09/2014)

• This concept of ‘binary oppositions’ was created by Levi-Strauss where there is information on the next slide.

• Claude Lévi-Strauss is a theorist who came up with the idea that films contains binary opposites, these opposites may clash in the film making the activity more exciting.

• Through his analyses he showed that patterns of structures including behavior and thought are universal to all societies, and rejected the concept of primitive and modern mind, arguing that all men have the same intellectual potential. According to Levi-Strauss, all people think of the world around them in terms of binary opposites such as up and down, life and death, etc. and therefore every culture can be understood in these terms.

• For example if you are watching a film there is normally a Hero, opposite to that would be a Villain, which you will almost always get in a film with a Hero.

• According to Levi-Strauss, all people think of the world around them in terms of binary opposites such as • up and down• life and death, etc.

And therefore every culture can be understood in these terms.

• Levi-Strauss’ ideas were heavily influenced by the so-called structural linguistics, especially the work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).

• http://www.philosophers.co.uk/claude-levi-strauss.html