Levi-Strauss developed the binary opposition theory which states that all narratives can be broken down into opposing pairs such as good vs evil, strong vs weak. He believed meaning is constructed through these binary opposites. Binary opposition analysis examines the opposing forces in a text and how they reinforce each other and create meaning. Strauss realized that words act as symbols representing societal ideas and meanings come from relationships between opposing concepts rather than fixed definitions.

2. Levi-Strauss was a french anthropologist and
ethnologist and he came up with the ‘Binary
Opposition Theory’. This stated that all
narratives could be reduced down to binary
opposites, for instance good vs evil or strong
vs weak. He believed that conflict is based
around the binary opposites of words, and he
introduced that the concept of binary
oppositions was 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

3. Binary opposition is an idea that can be
applied to all texts and will help
understand the ways ideas and meanings
are reinforced in a text. It describe how
each main force in a narrative has its
equal and opposite meaning and when
analysing a narrative it means that you
have to identify the opposing forces.
Strauss realised that worlds simply act as
symbols for society’s ideas and that the
meaning of words was a relationship
between opposing ideas, rather than just a
fixed thing.

4. Original Word Binary Opposite
Good vs
Evil
Boy vs
Girl
Strong vs
Weak
Peace vs
War
Protagonist vs
Antagonist
Light vs
Dark
Young vs
Old

5. Binary oppositions can
form the basis of narratives
and was the term used for
pairs of related terms that
in in the opposite meaning.
For example, in action
movies there always is
protagonist and antagonist
and one of them is strong
and the other is weak.