Structuralism

As defined by the web:

• linguistics defined as the analysis of formal structures in a text or discourse
• an anthropological theory that there are unobservable social structures that generate observable social phenomena
• a sociological theory based on the premise that society comes before individuals
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze a specific field (for instance, mythology) as a complex system of interrelated parts.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism
  

I feel this topic is well covered (perhaps too well?) in this Yale Literature Lecture on Semiotics and Structuralism
In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the semiotics movement through the work of its founding theorist, Ferdinand de Saussure.

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I take away from this that structuralism is essentially a means of explaining and ordering the deeper meaning within any given image or theory.