University of Education Lahore

Department of English
◦ Course Title: LITERARY THEORY

◦ Programme: BS ENGLISH (VI)

◦ Course Code: ENGL 3125

◦ Instructor’s Name: ABEERA WASEEM

Formalism
What is Formalism?

◦ Formalism is a literary theory that helps us in understanding literature from a specific point of
view/ through a particular ‘lens’. That is,

Formalism focuses on understanding the literary text through the text itself.
Background
◦ This theory became popular roughly by the first half of twentieth century and continued to dominate literary studies till
1960s.

◦ Formalism started as a movement in response to Old Criticism that worked on traditional ways of interpretation of a text.

◦ Formalism as a movement, was lead by two main bodies -- Russian Formalists and New Critics.

◦ Both of these bodies worked independently, as one started its movement in Russia and another took roots in America.

◦ Interestingly, it is claimed that neither of these two bodies of movement do propose any principle in opposition to the
other, rather, both Russian and American movements worked independently in developing Formalism at their own ends. As
each has introduced certain crucial principles in its domain.
Russian Formalism
◦ It was Russian Formalism that introduced new perspective of reading a literary text independently of its
context and author’s intention.

◦ Russian formalism emerged from the meetings, discussions, and publications of two groups of linguists and
literary academicians that were; Opojaz (The Society for the Study of Poetic Language) and the Moscow
Linguistic Circle.

◦ The Moscow Linguistic Circle was led by Roman Jakobson and formed in 1915 whereas formed a year later
in 1916 the Opojaz was started by Victor Shklovsky, Boris Eichenbaum, and Yuri Tynyanov in St. Petersburg.
Reason behind Formalist Theorizing
◦ Before formalism, every domain either it was history, philosophy, psychology or sociology was considered to
have a crucial part in understanding or interpreting a piece of literature. However, in view of formalists, what
this mix of the domains did was;
1. It only brought confusion
2. The goal of the literature that is to develop aesthetic beauty with the help of literary language,
died away
3. It didn’t let the literary texts achieve spotlight that it deserved.

◦ Thus, the main notion behind theorizing formalism was the desire to bring an end to the prevailing confusion
in the Traditional Methodology of reading, understanding, analyzing and interpreting literary texts.
◦ Also, the time came, argued formalists, that the study of literature limit its area and define its subject of
inquiry.
Principle Arguments
◦ Emphasizes on the form of the work. Form – the organization of the material, creates the total effect.

◦ Literature’s “content = its form” in an organic unity. So what the work says and how does it say is an inseparable
issue. (form and content)

◦ Rejects author's world view in understanding the text

◦ Describes purpose of literature as aesthetic: “art for art’s sake”.

◦ Focuses on the literariness of language.

◦ Develops a distinction between literary and every day language.

Key terms of Russian Formalism
◦ Literariness of Language: According to the Formalists, literary language (carrying literariness) is different
from everyday language (practical language).
◦ Form of the work: To study literature is to study poetics, which is an analysis of work’s constituent parts –
its linguistic and structural features – or its form. Form, they asserted, included the internal mechanics of the
work itself, especially its poetic language. These internal mechanics, or what the Formalists called devices,
comprise the artfulness and literariness of any given text, not a work’s content.
◦ Objectivity/Autonomy of text: Russian Formalists rejected many nineteenth-century assumptions of
textual analysis especially the belief that a work of literature was the expression of the author’s world view.
They also dismissed the idea that psychological and biographical criticism are relevant to interpretation in
any way. These scholars declared the autonomy of literature and poetic language, advocating a scientific
approach to literary interpretation.
Tenets of Russian Formalism
◦ Defamiliarization, or making different/strange, causes the audience to confront the object on a different
level, elevating and transforming it from something ordinary or practical into work that is considered art. It
means to remove the automatism or perception and the author’s purpose is to create the vision which results
from that deautomatized perception.
◦ Animal Farm is an example of defamiliarization in English Literature, because all of the characters are
animals. This rescues the work from becoming just another political piece about the evils of Communism
and the corruption of power and transforms it into artistic literature. Defamiliarization not only forces the
audience to see Animal Farm as art, but allows the author and audience to distance themselves from the
seriousness of the message so that the piece can be enjoyed as art and does not become just another political
rant.
Story Vs. Plot
◦ Formalists not only introduced the method to analyze poetry. They also rendered their focus on
analyzing prose by using formalist techniques. For this, they introduced the distinction between
Story and Plot.
◦ According to Formalists, narrative prose has two important aspects:
1. one is the Story
2. another is the Plot
◦ Story is the raw material of a tale and can be considered close to the writer’s outline. This contains the
chronological series of events of the story.
◦ There is a distinction between the actual sequence of a story’s event as they happen and the way they are
presented in the narrative. For example, the Story is always chronological, moving from beginning to end,
whereas the Plot may start in the middle and then jump back and forth within the chain of events.
◦ As a group, The Russian Formalists were suppressed and disbanded in 1930 by the Soviet government
because they were unwilling to view literature through the political and ideological perspectives.
NEW CRITICISM
◦ New Criticism provides readers with a formula for arriving at the correct interpretation of a text using only the
text itself.
◦ It was a reaction against traditional criticism in America.
◦ It arose in opposition to biographical or vaguely impressionistic approaches.
◦ Its aim was to establish literary studies as an objective discipline.
◦ Text posses meaning in and of itself; therefore, analysis should emphasize intrinsic features rather than
extrinsic ones.
 Extrinsic features: Context, the era of composition, the author, reader’s emotional response
 Intrinsic features: the words in the text, the structural organization, internal pattern
Background

◦ Thanks to the publication of the 1938 college text Understanding Poetry: An Anthology for College Students by
Brooks and Warren, New Criticism emerged in American universities as the leading form of textual analysis
throughout the late 1930s until the early 1960s. However, its roots stem from two British critics and authors,
T. S. Eliot and I.A. Richards.
◦ From Eliot, New Criticism borrows its idea that criticism should be directed toward the poem, not the poet.
The poet, declares Eliot, does not infuse the poem with his or her personality and emotions, but uses.
language in such a way as to incorporate within the poem the impersonal feelings and emotions common to
all humankind
◦ The New Critics also borrow Eliot’s belief that the reader of poetry must be instructed in literary technique.
Eliot maintains that a good reader perceives the poem structurally, resulting in good criticism. A poor
reader, on the other hand, simply expresses his or her personal emotions and reactions to a text.
Principle Arguments
◦ A work of literature is autonomous. New Critics treat a work of literature as if it were self-contained and self
referential object.
◦ Focuses on the elements of the text i.e. character, plot, setting, imagery, conflict, rhythm and rhyme.
◦ Considers that text contains, ambiguity, irony, paradox, oppositions that lead to various interpretations of the
text.
◦ According to New Criticism the poem’s overall meaning or form depends solely on the text. No library
research, no studying of the author’s life and times, and no other extra-textual information is needed; the
poem itself contains all the necessary information to discover its meaning.
 Key Terms
◦ Intentional Fallacy: Equating the meaning of the poem with author’s intentions
◦ Affective Fallacy: Confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes a reader feel. Formalism believes that
a reader’s emotional response generally does not produce a reliable interpretation of a literary text.
◦ Heresy of Paraphrase: Assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed
summary or a paraphrase.
◦ Close Reading: A close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring
to historical, authorial or cultural concerns.
Strength of Formalism
◦ Deserves a great credit for making us become more careful and serious readers.
◦ Some critics argue that the methodology introduced by New Criticism is elitist. To arrive at the so-called
correct interpretation of a text, a reader must first learn the vocabulary and then the correct procedures for
analysis.
◦ A deeper appreciation of the multiple uses of language that a literary text incorporates/adopts.
Weaknesses

◦ No work of literary art can be divorced from the reader and therefore, reader’s response.

◦ Some critics assert that different perspectives for understanding a text’s meaning do, indeed, exist and help
broaden what constitutes literature. Examining author’s lives can illuminate their works. Psychology,
sociology, and history do impact both individual writers and their works, helping to fill a vacuum created by
examining only the text. Without such analyses, argue many critics, we miss out on some meanings and
purposes.
References
◦ https://boxofbrian.wordpress.com
◦ Formalist Criticism for Students: Analyzing Writing Craft by Tim Gillespie (PDF)
◦ Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide (Second Edition)
◦ A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory by Raman Selden, Peter Widdowson & Peter
Brooker (Fifth Edition)