Claude Levi-Strauss’s Oppositions (Abigail Odum)

Claude Levi-Strauss  introduced the notion of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning within narratives. He argued that all construction of meaning was dependent, to some degree, on these oppositions. Examples of binary oppositions found in some moving image narratives might be:

Good vs. Evil

Male vs. Female

Humanity vs. Technology

Nature vs. Industrialisation

East vs. West

Dark vs. Light

Dirt vs. cleanliness

 Beyond its application to individual narratives, Levi-Strauss’s theory can and should be used to assess groups of texts and genres. Westerns, for example, went through a period in which binary oppositions included Homesteader vs ‘Red Indians’, Christian vs pagan and so on. We intend to apply this theory to our opening sequence.