LITERARY APPROACH

FORMALISM
 FORMALISM

“Formalism” is, as the name implies,

an interpretive approach that

emphasizes literary form and the

study of literary devices within the

text.
 FORMALISM
It sought to place the study of

literature on a scientific basis

through objective analysis of the

motifs, devices, techniques, and

other “functions” that comprise the

literary work.
 FORMALISM

Formalists placed great importance

on the literariness of texts, those

qualities that distinguished the

literary from other kinds of writing.

 FOCUS

It was the narrative that spoke that

had meaning. Form was the

content.
 FOCUS

Formalists pay more attention to

features like grammar, syntax,

structure and literary devices.

 THE CRITIC

A formalist critic examines the form of the work as a whole, the

form of each individual part of the text (the individual scenes and

chapters), the characters, the settings, the tone, the point of view,

the diction, and all other elements of the text which join to make it

a single text. After analyzing each part, the critic then describes how

they work together to make give meaning (theme) to the text.

 GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1. How is the work’s structure unified?

2. How do various elements of the work reinforce

its meaning?
3. What recurring patterns (repeated or related

words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the

effect of these patterns or motifs?

4. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?
 GUIDE QUESTIONS:

5. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect

the work’s meaning?

6. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts

specifically produce that effect?

7. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors,

similes, hyperbole, personification, etc.)

 GUIDE QUESTIONS:

8. How does the writer use paradox, irony, symbol,

plot, characterization, and style to enhance the story?

What effects are produced? Do any of these relate

to one another or to the theme?

9. Is there a relationship between the beginning and

the end of the story?

10. What tone and mood are created at various

parts of the work?

 GUIDE QUESTIONS:

11. How does the author create tone and mood?

What relationship is there between tone and mood

and the effect of the story?

12. How do the various elements interact to create a

unified whole?
LITERARY APPROACH

STRUCTURALIST
Structuralism is based

on the assumption

that every text has a

universal, underlying

structure.
 STRUCTURALISM

In literary theory, structuralism

challenged the belief that a work of

literature reflected a given reality;

instead, a text was constituted of

linguistic conventions and situated

among other texts.

 STRUCTURALISM
Structuralist critics analyzed material by

examining underlying structures, such as

characterization or plot, and attempted to

show how these patterns were universal

and could thus be used to develop general

conclusions about both individual works and

the systems from which they emerged.

 STRUCTURALISM

Literature is seen as a whole: it functions as

a system of meaning and reference no

matter how many works there are, two or

two thousand. Thus any work becomes the

parole, the individual articulation, of a

cultural langue, or system of signification

 GUIDE QUESTIONS

What patterns in the text reveal its similarities to other texts?

What binary oppositions (e.g., light/dark, good/evil, old/young,

masculine/feminine, and natural/artificial, etc.) operate in the

text?
How is each part of the binary valued? Does the binary imply

a hierarchy (e.g., is light better than dark, is an old age more

valuable than a young age, etc.)?

A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses. It indicates the
relationship between the elements joined.
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