Theory - Levi Strauss

by Zoe Ellis 04:23 0 comments Link Research Text Theory

What is binary opposition?

A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.

So what did Strauss do? 

He looked at many myths and other stories from across different cultures and broke them down. He attempted to find out how they were all similar and that they were all manifestations of the same language. What he found was that all the stories have binary opposites.

Here is a slide show with more info: 

How is this useful to me?

In my short film we are portraying the character of Goldilocks as the opposite of her 'typical' character. Here we are uses a psychopathic killer instead of the innocent girl. This itself is a type of opposition but more obvious than that are the two main characters.

The DCI is portraying the side of justice/good/old and Goldilocks is on the lawless/evil/young side. These character tropes are binary opposites of each other. Strauss' theory can be used because he said that without the opposites then the media would be unbalanced. To avoid this we need to make sure that the DCI acts as the counter weight.



Click on picture to see the original post. Not made by me.