HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Russian Formalism:
Time Period (Early 20th Century):
- Emerged in Russia during the early 20th century, particularly in the years leading
up to and following the Russian Revolution (1917).
- Flourished in the 1910s and 1920s.
Focus:
- Emphasized the form and structure of literary texts.
- Introduced the concept of "defamiliarization," encouraging a fresh perspective on
familiar things.
Central Ideas:
- Distinguished between "fabula" (story) and "syuzhet" (plot).
- Analyzed literary devices, linguistic elements, and narrative structure.
Legacy:
- Faced challenges in the Soviet Union due to ideological clashes with socialist
realism.
- Influenced later literary theories and structuralist approaches worldwide.
DISCUSSION:
Extrinsic Analysis- examining elements outside the text to uncover the text’s meaning
became the norm. Many believed, was to discover the historical context of a text and
to ascertain how the authors lives influenced their writings.
Impressionistic Critics- how we feel and what we personally see in a work of art are
what really matter.
Naturalism- human beings are considered animals who are caught in a world that
operates on definable scientific principles.
New Humanists- human experience is basically ethical, based on moral values
19th century:
Romanticism- artist’s feelings, attitudes and personal visions exhibited in their works
as evidenced in a text
New Criticism:
Time Period (Mid-20th Century):
Flourished in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, gaining prominence in
academic circles.
Key Figures:
Key proponents include Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, and John Crowe
Ransom.
Focus:
Advocated for close reading of texts, emphasizing the intrinsic value of the literary
work.
Ignored extraneous influences such as authorial intent and historical context.
Central Ideas:
Stressed the importance of paradox, ambiguity, and irony in literature.
Focused on the unity and autonomy of the text.
Legacy:
Influential in shaping American literary education and criticism during the mid-20th
century.
Later faced criticism for its perceived limitations in addressing broader cultural and
historical contexts.
DISCUSSION:
However, along with impressionism, these are rejected by the New Critics “Only the
poem itself can be objectively evaluated not the feelings or attitudes of the author.
Formalism “like the Russian formalist, new critics espouse what many call “the text
and text alone”
Both Russian formalist and new critic believe that every text and indeed all literature
is a complex, rule-governed system of forms (literary devices) that are analyzable.
2 British critics and authors:
T.S Eliot and I.A Richard – helped lay the foundation for this form of formalistic
analysis.
Eliot “Poetry is not a freeing of the poet’s emotions, but an escape from them”
- He believed that poem is an impersonal formulation of common feelings and
emotions
- The successful poem unites the poet’s emotions and ideas with those common to
all humanity, producing a text that is not simply a reflection of the poet’s personal
feelings
Following Eliot’s lead, the new critics declare that there are both good and bad
readers or good and bad criticism.
A poor reader and criticism- a poem can mean anything its readers or its authors
wishes it to mean
A good reader and good criticism will assert that only through a detailed structural
analysis of a poem can a reader discover the correct interpretation of the text.
